My wife has Multiple Sclerosis. Although we're told it's not hereditary or genetic, it claimed both her mother and uncle. It has a "familial connection." MS has no cure. But unlike many other fatal diseases, it has a very long lifespan. So, living with this disease is it's worst symptom.
It kills you, but takes it's own sweet time.
I wrote a short story for my wife, trying desparately to imagine what it must be like to be her, living with a broken poison bottle leaking very slowly inside. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't put myself in her shoes. So, I researched her disease, only to discover there is relatively very little known. It is a disease that is "symptomatic", meaning the effect it has on you IS the disease. It's not a cancer that can be cut out or treated with radiation or chemotherapy. You and the life you must now live are the disease.
The more I learned about the disease the less I understood how my wife must be feeling. So, I tried to imagine having the disease myself. But again, so little is known. I came to the conclusion that any and all devastating diseases while characteristically different, must have the same effect on the individual emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
My journey led me to an understanding, not of incurable diseases, but the effect it has on our loved ones. In a word, Empathy...her pain in my heart.
I wrote the story in the first person with the narrator having Parkinson's Disease. This ailment is just as mysterious, but at the time was more fully documented. The title of the short story is actually a partial list of PD symptoms: "desire, dementia and disturbingly vivid dreams."
The story was written for my wife. But I think anyone who suffers from an incurable disease or knows someone who is, can identify with it. It actually has three overlapping story lines.
1) The devastating effects of terminal illness.
2) A science fiction tale of time travel.
3) An eternal love story and just how far that love will go.
Please click on the link to find the story. Downloads are a dollar, because the publishing website changed its policy on free downloads. Any proceeds will go to my wife's treatment. Feel free to share the link with your family and friends.
"And so our hope for you is unwavering, knowing as we do that, just as you are sharers of the sufferings, in the same way you will also share the comfort."
(2 Corinthians 1:7)
To find the story, click on the picture of the camera viewfinder at right with the question, "lose someone you love?"
