Juliet lost her husband, Jeff, to ALS in 2020, 19 months after his diagnosis. Together Jeff and Juliet enjoyed being on the water, live music, pets, and traveling. She was his primary caregiver, and finds meaning and healing in helping individuals and families who are living with or have lost a loved one to ALS. Juliet lives with her rescue pup, Sailor, on the eastern shore of Maryland, in a home that Jeff chose because it reminded him of his beloved Green Lake in Michigan.
After the loss of my beloved dog Rudder when he was 12 years old, a close friend observed with concern that she hadn’t seen me cry. It was true, I hadn’t shed any tears…
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It was seven years ago this summer that I unwittingly and unwillingly became a part of the ALS community when my late husband, Jeff, began exhibiting foot drop and slurred speech, symptoms that were…
My late husband, Jeff, and I shared a love of the outdoors, even though our preferred activities were often different. I loved to hike and kayak, while Jeff, who’d been injured when a car…
I remember the emptiness I felt the first September after graduating from college. I’d been a student for 16 of my 21 years at that time, and the void of not going back to…
Sometime in my mid-40s, I wrote a list of goals I wanted to achieve before turning 50. I no longer have the list, but I remember a few things on it: Learn a second…
The weeks immediately following my late husband’s ALS diagnosis were the scariest and most unsettling of my life. Even with Jeff’s physical symptoms pointing toward ALS, nothing could’ve prepared us to actually hear…
When I was growing up, many of my neighbors participated in the U.S. Naval Academy Sponsor Program, as we lived just a few miles from the school’s campus in Annapolis, Maryland. Under the program,…
A photo I came across this week from when my late husband, Jeff, was living with ALS flooded me with emotions. It was taken in November 2019, the month we moved into an…
I was enchanted on the first date with my late husband, Jeff, when our conversation turned to work. It’s an odd thing to say, because we can be conditioned to believe that work should…
The summer and autumn of 2018 brought uncertain and scary moments for my late husband, Jeff, and me as he battled progressing symptoms of what would later be diagnosed as ALS. His symptoms…
One of the things I cherished most about my late husband, Jeff, was his love of the holidays. From the year we began dating until our last Christmas, before he died from ALS…
I remember the first time my late husband, Jeff, fell as a result of ALS. Falls can be common with the disease, but I was still shocked each time one happened. When Jeff…
