Candy Shell Life — Lauryn Smith

When my children were born, I had an irrational fear that something bad would happen to me, and I wouldn’t be here to take care of them. As they got older, I replaced that…

According to authors Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and David Kessler, people go through five stages of grief after losing a loved one or experiencing a catastrophic life event. The stages are denial, anger, bargaining, depression,…

Junior high school was one of the hardest times of my life. Now that my children are at a similar life stage, I recognize that they are struggling, too. When you add Friedreich’s…

One of the first things we did when we learned of our daughter’s Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) diagnosis was to make sure she had all the accommodations she needed in all areas of her…

Our family has the good fortune to spend summers at a beautiful lake in central Alabama. For the past nine years, my in-laws have had a summer home and they’ve graciously invited the entire…

“I can tell that you are really strong and that you can take it,” she said. “So I’m going to tell you like it is.” This is the first thing a Friedreich’s ataxia…