A Family Tradition - a Column by Carlos Briceño

I never thought I’d be driving to work listening to the Kelce brothers interview Taylor Swift about her upcoming “Life of a Showgirl” album on their “New Heights” podcast. At 61, my musical tastes have been pretty set for decades: Give me some Bruce Springsteen or U2, and…

Last in a series. Read part one.  Choosing genetic testing for Huntington’s disease is an act of courage on its own, as I pointed out in my column last week. But as my wife, Jill, discovered, the medical system’s maze can make it feel like an outright ordeal.

First in a series. When people ask my wife, Jill, about her Huntington’s disease, I never expect her reply to reach for a playground metaphor. But she has a way of drawing from everyday life, turning even the hardest subjects into something instantly relatable. “It’s just like a…

The other week, I hit what I like to call the trifecta of family wins. My wife and daughter actually laughed at one of my puns (a rare feat); I managed to find something my wife, Jill, couldn’t see (she usually finds the things I lose); and, perhaps most…

I never expected a lesson in quantum mechanics to help me make sense of my wife’s Huntington’s disease diagnosis. But over the past few years, as I’ve watched Jill navigate the unpredictable nature of this illness, the parallels between her journey and the famous Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment have…

The night my wife, Jill, threatened to divorce me over a soccer game, I knew she wasn’t being serious. As dramatic as her threat was, we both knew exactly what she was doing. Jill was reminding me about the importance of self-care. When she was diagnosed with Huntington’s…

As the recent heat wave baked our city and much of the country, my family found itself reflecting on simple acts of kindness. Specifically, we focused on how important these things are to me and my wife, Jill, and our daughter, Alexus, both of whom are gene-positive for…

Note: This column discusses suicide. Resources for help are listed at the end of the column. In the Huntington’s disease community, I’ve noticed that conversations about depression and suicide are often avoided or treated as taboo. Medical professionals sometimes warn families like ours that suicide may be an outcome…

When I was a child, I never missed an episode of the television series “The Incredible Hulk.” I was fascinated by Bruce Banner’s struggle — how he tried to control the monster inside him as he turned green, his muscles bulging out of his clothes; how he fought…

My wife, Jill, who’s gene-positive for Huntington’s disease, has for months been riveted by the murder trial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, in 2022. Last month, a jury found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter…