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This week is a time of saying goodbye to my Dad, celebrating his long and wonderful life and reuniting with my family….Mom, siblings, nieces and nephews, spouses of family and the newest small children members. Dear Readers, I have taken a break for a couple […]

 Something as simple as putting his chair or the couch, in direct sunlight was a great start. The sun’s warmth and light on his face and body was a life affirming experience. Andy’s Parkinson’s symptoms were severe and relentless. We discovered small wins with simple […]

Our teachers are the brave folk who venture out with their visible disabilities every day and crush the opposition. Disability is a condition the world needs to open its collective arms to. I don’t have a disability but I live with one who deals on […]

Teaching by demonstration was by far the most effective way. During Andy’s most disabled years, people looked to us to show them what they didn’t know about how to be with Andy. Andy and I were not always able to teach people as effortlessly as […]

Andy cannot talk in a voice but through Marco Polo technology it is like magic that he can be understood again. Marco Polo is an app that can be downloaded onto an I Phone or I Pad or computer. My sister in law, who lives […]

Inhale through left nostril, exhale through right nostril then inhale through right nostril and exhale through left nostril making a full circle. Something happens after receiving a hard blow in life and Andy no longer being able to talk was a hard blow. In the […]

Years have passed and we have grieved and now his silence has become another adventure to explore and we have experienced some success in our explorations. What changes in your life have you struggled with? There are tools to help people with voice challenges caused […]

The patient can and must tap into their own reserves of persistence, certainty and confidence that their words are valuable and worth fighting for. Talking often becomes harder with Parkinson’s disease. It takes an intrepid confidence not to submit to the isolation inherent in no […]

We purchased a large, motorized reclining chair.  It fit into our housetruck with about one inch to spare and loomed large in our tiny kitchen and living space of 64 square feet. During the hardest years, when Andy was disabled with Parkinson’s disease to the […]