Columns

On most days, I walk three laps around the fields on my mom’s property next to my home. My stress diminishes as I drink in the natural beauty while exercising. I stop and smell apple blossoms in the spring. I pause to snack on early summer sugar snap peas…

“Love the One You’re With.” In his 1970 release, Stephen Stills advised folks to show carnal affection for whomever fate paired them with. If the prurient intent is replaced with agape treatment, and the noun is made plural, the lyric becomes…

My heroes and role models come in all shapes and sizes. For example, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who stood barely 5 feet tall, has always held a mighty spot in my mind. Best known as the second woman in U.S. history to be appointed a Supreme Court Justice, I admired…

I cried again as I read yet another social media post by a caregiving spouse whose husband just died from ALS. ALS kills someone every 90 minutes, and I’ve made online connections with many caregivers, which means I frequently read of somebody’s loss. I cry hardest when another mom…

Hang on tightly, it’s another week of weather events, news alerts, and a continuing health crisis. I feel like I’m riding on a big airplane flying through rough turbulence. Certainly, living with ALS has taught me I can’t control the jiggles and the bumps, but I can control how I…

Lulu Wang’s film “The Farewell” is based on an actual lie. The 2019 comedic drama looks at a family’s decision to keep their matriarch ignorant of her stage IV lung cancer diagnosis with a prognosis of death in three months. Billi, a Chinese American woman, travels to China for…

Big news buzzed through the ALS community last week about AMX0035, an investigational treatment for ALS that just finished a Phase 2/3 clinical trial. Early results indicated that AMX0035 slowed the progression of ALS symptoms. Although discovering a cure for ALS is still the ultimate goal for…

Perspective can be hard to come by with ALS, but writing has helped me keep my head above water. I’ve kept a journal since I was a kid. I wrote my way through teenage angst, my musings during my college years, the challenges of trying to help the teens I…

All around me, I’ve been noticing how people, businesses, and organizations are pivoting to survive these challenging times. We’re getting confident using Zoom, dine-in restaurants have expanded their takeout business, and ALS fundraisers are holding online events. I love seeing all this successful pivoting. It gives me hope. Pivoting,…

My husband, Todd, and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary in late August with a date at Fitzgerald’s, a restaurant built on the shore of Lake Superior in Eagle River, Michigan. A permit to build on a beach would never be approved today, but it could be done in…