We recently met someone who had just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and was still trying to figure out exactly what that might mean. He asked many questions and observed my husband carefully as if looking at him might be a clue to his future. We both realized that the most important information he needed to hear in that moment was “If you’ve seen one person with Parkinson’s, you’ve seen one person with Parkinson’s”.  My husband shared that watching him was okay if he wanted to discover how PD was presenting within my husband, it would not show what the diagnosis might mean to him.

I remember being there early on in our journey. I was afraid of joining a Parkinson’s support group because I was afraid of what I might see. I expected that there would be people who were more seriously impacted and I didn’t want to think I would be looking at our future. My only contact with Parkinson’s Disease had been with my father and it was ugly. I wasn’t ready to face the possibility that we might be there ourselves someday.

We talked with our new friend, answering some of his questions, and gave him information on all of our local resources. We encouraged him to stay in touch. Most of all we encouraged him to always look at what he can do, not what he can’t. Our key to beating Parkinson’s is always to keep a positive attitude and to keep on fighting. He can’t know for sure where PD will lead him but he can still live a full life, and that is the piece of this journey that I know we can share and model for him.