For the first few years after my husband’s diagnosis, we tried to continue living a normal life. We were both working and his symptoms weren’t causing major impacts. We shared the news of his illness with a few friends and family members, but for the most part life went on as always. Then, things started to change. The symptoms became more pronounced and we had to start making adjustments. His work was impacted by speech and tremor issues and he decided to retire. I continued to work but worried about him being at home by himself. I joined him in retirement 3 years later and we were both homebased. Our world became physically smaller.

Retirement gave us the time to reach out to our local Parkinson’s support systems. We had spent the first 7 years standing alone in our battles with PD, and suddenly we found that there were many others facing similar challenges. These were people who were able to identify with the daily struggles we faced and who opened their arms to welcome us into the community.

Now we find that although our world may seem smaller at times due to the limitations this illness places on my husband, our social world has blossomed. We have people in our lives who may not share our political or philosophical views but who share something deeper, a friendship that comes from true caring. Our world may be physically smaller but our world of true friends is huge and we are both eternally thankful for that.