A Family Tradition
— Carlos Briceño

Whoever named Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government’s project to produce and develop COVID-19 vaccines safely and effectively, got it right. In doing research for this column, I came across words like “unprecedented” and “breakneck” to describe not only how fast it took a vaccine to be approved, but…

Thick rubber bands seem unbreakable. It takes effort to pull each end. In contrast, breaking a thin rubber band takes little effort. This is how my wife, Jill, summarized the current state of the world the other day. It seems like we all start out as…

So … December is finally here. It’s the last month of the longest year ever, as far as I’m concerned. As I write this, it’s extremely cold and gray outside. Oh, sun, where are you? Warm weather, where are you? End of the pandemic, where are you? The holidays…

I usually write about what life is like as a caregiver, along with my observations about how Huntington’s disease (HD) affects my family. I’ll do that in today’s column, too, but I’ve added a creative twist by writing a short play. It has two characters:…

Two years ago, my wife, Jill, took a genetic test and discovered she has Huntington’s disease. Thanksgiving wasn’t the same that year. Last year, two events occurred that made me feel as though Mike Tyson had punched me in the gut: My daughter took a genetic test and found…

At some point in the history of mankind, someone said, “Let’s raise awareness about [topic A].” And because “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,” as Oscar Wilde noted, someone else said, “Hey, if they can raise awareness about [topic A], let’s celebrate our favorite topic.” Now, January is…

The events of the past week have reminded me just how tough my wife, Jill, is. I’m grateful for her grit because I know she will need it as the conditions of her Huntington’s disease worsen as the years go by. Jill is the type of person who…

When my sister died in a tragic accident a year ago, grief caused me to lose my appetite. As a result, over the next two months, I lost around 13 pounds. I found myself being content with one full meal a day. Losing weight like that usually isn’t…

When I write this column every week, I try to only share the things that can, and will, affect my family’s battle with Huntington’s disease. Today, I would like to write about something that affects people with every disease and the families who care for them: voting.

I have decided to get my wife a T-shirt that reads, “It’s not you, it’s me.” I want to get it for her so she can wear it each time she visits a doctor. As if her having Huntington’s disease is not bad enough, eight months ago she started…

I’m protective, a trait typical of most men. For example, I will drive for 18 hours across the country while my wife sleeps in the passenger seat. Jill has trouble sleeping in general, and the motion of the car acts as a sedative, rocking her to sleep. Long…

When I first understood that I was going to be a writer, I did what everyone does upon discovering a passion: I wrote and wrote and wrote. I realized that the best writing gushes with precise details. That quality of writing required a lot of practice. So, I kept a…