Columns

It’s April, and we’re halfway through Parkinson’s Awareness Month, an effort designed to focus on education about the disease. There are still regions of the world where Parkinson’s isn’t yet understood. And there aren’t words to describe the disease in some distant corners of the Earth, which makes facing…

Resiliency. It’s not a word you hear too often in relation to Parkinson’s disease. You hear words like courage and strength. But resiliency? Not often. What is resiliency? You might say it is having the ability to bounce back quickly from difficulties. Or having a toughness of character, a…

She was nine years younger than his 37 years of age. Two months into their relationship, a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis was inevitable. She had a decision to make. A choice that would affect the rest of her life. Should she continue seeing him? Invest her life in something that…

If I was a hoarder, I would choose chocolate chip cookies over toilet paper. In a head-to-head match, chocolate chip cookies have many more benefits for coping with the COVID-19 crisis. That soothing smell of a freshly baked cookie can’t be matched by toilet paper, even the scented kind. A…

When you’re young, you think you have it all figured out. The future is limitless. I was no exception. My life was moving right along when, all of a sudden, it wasn’t. I was diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s, and my husband and I found ourselves on a different journey,…

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …” —Charles Dickens The worst of times Currently, my retirement community is on lockdown and was one of the first places in my county in Long Island, New York, where COVID-19 cases were reported. Eight residents have since…

When news of the coronavirus was first surfacing, many of us wanted to stick our head in a bucket and ignore the possibilities ahead. Soon after the worrisome news that things were not going to get better any time soon, we pulled our heads out of the bucket…

Sellers tore up the contract for our bid on a new home in Illinois. They wanted to accept a “better offer.” My wife and I are now homeless. Well, almost. We have a committed sale of the home we are in and we had started thinking of the Illinois place…

Many symptoms are representative of Parkinson’s disease, the more widely known being external tremors and an unusual gait — or “walking funny,” as some might say. There is one other less visible symptom that can be connected to having the disease: loneliness. Loneliness can be a shortcut to depression.

If you’re in the same boat as my dad, chances are that your gym is on lockdown. Dad was disappointed to hear that Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) is pausing operations during the global coronavirus pandemic. But he also recognized that it’s the safest move. This global quarantine is really…