Columns

When I was brainstorming ideas for the name of this column, before settling on “Joyful Sorrow,” I asked my husband if he had any ideas. “How about ‘The Caregiver’?” Todd suggested. I dismissed it out of hand. He pushed back. “I think it’s a good name. It’s descriptive and it’s…

I always have had a fascination with words. It stems from my mom and dad, both of whom instilled in me a voracious appetite for reading and writing. Letters from my grandfather blending humor, pathos, self-deprecation, irreverence, sobriety, fact, and thoughtful opinion cemented the notion that words, carefully pieced together,…

In 2010, a few short months after my ALS diagnosis, I found myself having to rely full time on a rollator. I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t happy at all. But now, nine years later, it’s become my ever-present silent buddy, and I can’t imagine my life…

This year for Father’s Day, I ordered a basket of gourmet caramel apples from Amy’s Candy Kitchen, a little shop in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Amy’s Granny Smith apples are large and covered with sweet caramel, salty pecans, or other nuts. It is an explosion of flavor, magnifying both the…

Lately, I’ve been on alert trying to avoid sticky points. These are what I call particular points in my day when I’m most vulnerable to distractions. Because if I give in to the distraction, I end up lost in negative thoughts and I weaken the positive mindset I’ve created to…

I am by nature a fixer. After my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS, I found out modern medicine didn’t provide a cure. There’s no option for surgery. No drugs significantly improve outcomes. So, I turned to searching the internet for alternative therapies that might help. “I want to fight…

“For the past two weeks, you have been reading about a bad break. Yet today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” —Lou Gehrig, July 4, 1939 Lou Gehrig was my father’s favorite baseball player, which for a fair bit of my youth,…

“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. … That’s the signpost up ahead — your next stop, the Twilight Zone!” —Rod Serling I took my eyes off the figurative road and missed the signpost entirely. It began one…

Summer is finally here, which means it’s time for outdoor events, fun trips, and visits from family and friends. I look forward to each and every one of these memory-filled activities, especially now that I live with ALS. But even just a few days of travel or entertaining, combined…

Welcome to Kristin Neva’s “Joyful Sorrow,” a new ALS News Today column. *** My world changed forever 13 years ago when I became a mom. I lay in the hospital bed with my newborn daughter’s crib next to me and my husband sitting nearby. I was in so…