Columns

Have you ever been on a plane with a couple and their small child? You hope the child falls asleep or, at the very least, behaves. At some point during the flight, it’s not uncommon for children to whine and fidget, cry and hit the seat, or insist on getting…

Today, I was opening a straw for my drink the way I always do: I rip off a small section toward one end, then remove the longer end of the wrapper. While holding the shortened wrapper, I insert the bare end of the straw into the cup…

Earlier this year, I heard of an opportunity to write a column for Bionews Services. As many of you know, my wife, Jill, was diagnosed with the Huntington’s gene. Before I applied, I wanted to discuss it with Jill. I have shared in the past that my…

I decided that I did not want to have children so long ago that I no longer remember it. At the time, I thought I only had a 25 percent chance of having Huntington’s disease. Since then, I have come up with plenty of…

When Jill and I lived in Florida, we loved being outside, going to local parks, walking on the beach, and hanging out with friends and family. Life was good. Then we moved to the Midwest, and we went to a city where we had no family and knew no…

Growing up, the fact that my grandfather had Huntington’s disease (HD) wasn’t a secret. It was the reason that, when we drove to Pennsylvania to see my family, we had to pull over to feed him through a tube. It was also why I watched the man…

I am standing at the end of the beauty aisle at our local grocery store. I’m watching my wife, Jill, look at boxes of press-on nails — again. I think back to when she was my girlfriend, back to when she was someone who said she didn’t have any hobbies,…

I made it down the long, sterile hallway and past the waiting room before bursting into tears. My husband gathered me into his arms as I stood there sobbing, unable to move. His shirt quickly became stained with my tears. We paid no attention to the dinging bell and the…

Aretha Franklin sang about it. Rodney Dangerfield joked about it by saying he never got any. The Boston Red Sox got it after finally winning the World Series again in 2004. The “it” I’m referring to, of course, is respect. A recent trip to the airport by…

Do you recall the Apollo 11 mission that took place July 16-24, 1969? My wife, Jill, likes to remind me that she remembers reading about it in a history book. This summer, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the first humans landing on the moon. That may not…