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 […]
Parkinson’s is a disease of ups and downs and continuous change. The trajectory of this disease does not go in only one direction. Living with Parkinson’s is never an easy experience. Living well with Parkinson’s demands creative thinking and a hopeful spirit, both of which […]
We are in our seventeenth year of Andy having this disease. Although he stopped practicing yoga for many years as his shaking became a hindrance, he has taken it up again. One of the successes we have experienced, while Andy lives with Parkinson’s Disease, is […]
Sometimes the people who stand with you in the hard times are not the ones you would have expected to be there. Letting go of people is really letting go of expectations about those people. I became attached to my two loving midwives and had […]
Our dream home was his crowning glory of projects and was our “Rolling Home” housetruck, a gorgeous comfortable home on the back of a truck where we had lived and raised our children. While living with Parkinson’s Disease, we asked our friends to stand with […]
We needed friends who were strong and flexible enough to meet us right where we stood, not longing for another time that was no longer possible. Isn’t life a constant revision of our friends? Who we trust to stand with us in times of joy […]
I realized I was choosing to be his caregiver and in that moment of acceptance lifelines showed up. Caregiving became my job by default, because I never set out to be anyone’s caregiver. Family caregiving is like that. It happens when Mom falls and breaks […]
This symptom took us by surprise. Although the remedy is easy, it’s another loss. Andy and I have always shared a bed. The size of the mattress never mattered- only that we shared it. After 47 years of marriage, we’ve shared beds in houses, on […]
In family caregiving, we caregivers have daily jobs that can try even the most patient among us, and the miracles never come often enough. But they do come. There are moments in family caregiving, just as in parenting, sailing and soldiering, that transcend the tiresome […]
As for me, in our first week I was assigned the class of the youngest children and I had a two year old named Stanzin. Before leaving India, our participation in daily life at the orphanage and school had honed our abilities in living well […]
