Ohio native Elizabeth Hamilton felt her world flip when her younger daughter’s health unexpectedly declined. It took six hospitals in five different cities and three states to obtain the diagnosis of Friedreich’s ataxia in 2020. A licensed social worker, Elizabeth believes that relationships are a healing force, and most problems can be solved if you have the right tools and the right people. Life takes unexpected turns, so we must take a moment to reexamine where we are and recalibrate.
“You can’t miss us. We have a huge metal ramp attached to the front porch,” I explained while giving directions to our home recently. That particular line made me both chuckle and sigh. Getting…
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Everywhere I look, I see advertisements on billboards, computer monitors, and even at the pump telling me what I should buy and how I’m missing out on having certain things. We are bombarded by…
As I heard the words come out of my mouth, I knew I sounded crazy. Yet there I was, pitching the idea to my husband: I wanted us to embark on a 16-hour journey…
“Yeah, that was not me. It was you.” I finally said it out loud after all these years. I was not the first person to recognize that our daughter Amelia, then 4, was experiencing…
Oh, those lazy days of summer are here. Unless I’m your mom and you have Friedreich’s ataxia (FA). In that case, it’s game on. Years ago, I noticed a yearly pattern with our…
When our daughter Amelia, 13, was diagnosed with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) five years ago, I started doing the math. Like other parents, we’d been told that most people diagnosed with FA will…
As the lecturer’s voice echoed in the large hall, I sat nestled between friends. This was a lifetime before my 12-year-old daughter Amelia’s diagnosis of Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), and before I was gearing…
I both heard and felt the rumbling noise as the elevator jerked to a halt and I was plunged into darkness. Immediately I knew my error and was kicking myself. We were in the…
I found myself growing uncomfortable as I stood in front of the group. Not because all eyes were on me as a presenter, but because I’d realized I was out of alignment. As the…
I loved pop-up books as a child. The pieces that moved — delicate structures jumping off the page — captivated me, as did finding all of the flaps with hidden pictures. So it was…
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