I grew up in a close family in S. California. My dad's mom, Grandbee, came from Kansas, and lots of her brothers and sisters had what we called the family disease. Grandbee herself had a stiff way of moving her torso back and forth, but no one thought it was HD. I loved to hike out at my grandparents place in the country. In town I enjoyed school and my neighborhood friends. I did well in my studies and in art and went to college. Afterwards I worked at various jobs. Meanwhile my dad had left us, and my mom divorced him. He spent years traveling around and making friends. Finally he settled down again in the hills of his parents' country home. Grandbee had died at age 87. My dad, when he was about 60, developed a very strange way of walking. We thought he had had a stroke. He was the sort never to go to doctors. I was working as an assistant teacher in a community college. I had gotten married to a very nice man. We didn't have children. My family and I started to notice that one of my brothers, Tim, had truoble controlling both his movements and his temper. My husband was the first to say out loud, "He has your family disease." Tim went to the doctor and it was diagnosed: he had Huntington's Disease. Not long after this, I became terribly depressed and couldn't work at my job well. I went to the doctor and was also diagnosed with HD. So after years of not thinking HD was in our immediate family, we found three of us at least had it, and my oldest brother could be at-risk, too. Since then I have worked hard at keeping on. I write, I paint, and I take care of things at home. So far I am more like my grandma and my dad, in that my movements are rather stiff than uncontrolled. We were all so sad when my brother Tim died in July of 2006. I don't know what my future holds, and I'm often frightened about it. But I try to tell myself, "I'm doing well today and will probably do well tomorrow, so let's not look too far ahead for now."
Join in the fun when reading this good dental hygiene storybook.
Each copy costs only 6.95 plus tax and postage.
Contact Debbie at mdab@uisreno.com for more info on buying copies.
a Painting!
a doll's adventures in
Old Kansas, written by Verna McCann, my grandbee, who had HD.
a short short story by Debbie Bumstead
