Joyful Sorrow — Kristin Neva

When someone asked my husband how he is doing in light of COVID-19, Todd replied, “Our life isn’t that much different. Now everyone else is dealing with what we have been living with for years.” There are similarities between…

After my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS, we battened down the hatches to prepare for the coming storm. We moved to be near family in the Keweenaw Peninsula, a sliver of land that stretches into Lake Superior.

My 14-year-old daughter woke me up at 4:45 a.m. “Do you hear that?” “Hear what?” I asked groggily. “You don’t hear anything?” Panic rose in Sara’s voice. “No.” I sat up. “You don’t hear that?” she said, just after…

After three weeks of my husband, Todd, being cloistered in our home with a cold, we ventured out Saturday for Michigan Tech’s last home hockey game of the season. Our Huskies took on their archrival, the Northern…

I didn’t react when a spine care specialist mentioned ALS as a possible cause of my husband’s weak arm, because I didn’t know what ALS was. Todd and I talked about daily life during the drive home from the…

One of my biggest concerns is how my husband’s ALS will affect our children. They were both under 5 when Todd was diagnosed and while they are growing up, their father continues to lose strength. A couple of years…

I’m not the same person I was 10 years ago, before my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS. The brutal reality of the disease has changed me in three ways: 1. I swear more I’d never done much swearing.

A month after my husband, Todd, was diagnosed with ALS, I wrote in my journal: “Squeezing in memories is bittersweet. Last weekend, we took Sara and Isaac to the beach. The sun sparkled off the water and Isaac…

I thought my days of obsessively avoiding germs and examining poop would be over once my babies grew, but such is the circle of life now that my husband has ALS. When I was a brand-new mom, one of…

My son pointed to a plastic army man on the ottoman. “That guy is a sniper,” he said. “He’s taking everyone out.” He placed a soldier on top of others on the living room floor. “This army is using…

The grief that accompanies ALS is multifaceted. I grieve my husband’s loss of function and the loss of our dreams. Just when we find a new normal, there is further decline. I let my grief out on the pages…

Like many families, we played games over the holidays. Because my husband, Todd, is completely paralyzed due to ALS, we chose games in which he could participate. Apples to Apples worked well for him. I set his cards in…