Kendall Harvey is a wife and mother of two in Austin, Texas. She has been navigating life with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) since her diagnosis in 2013 at the age of 25. She worked in marketing before “retiring” to be a stay-at-home-mom. She is an optimistic warrior fighting for a better future free of FA. Until that day comes, she aspires to inspire others with her column by detailing personal life lessons about grit and grace. Kendall shares a message of hope despite disability.In my journey with progressive Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), I battle a wide array of symptoms. While increasingly poor balance seems to be my most disruptive and frustrating symptom, it’s not the one that keeps me up at night.
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Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) has changed so much about who I am. The physical effects have changed how I think, act, feel, and relate. Some of the changes are good, some are bad, and others are just complicated and hard.
One of my favorite books to read to my children is “What Do You Do With a Problem?” by Kobi Yamada. In it, the book’s main character suddenly finds himself facing a problem. He worries about “what would…
Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) is a cruel diagnosis in several ways, and those ways seem to frequently morph, multiply, and momentarily take over my life. When I first started to learn about FA and my particular prognosis as a…
I fell head over heels in love with my husband, Kyle, when I was 16 years old. By 18, I knew I would marry him. Then it came time for college, and though we didn’t go to the same university,…
During the Fearless Mom 2022 conference in February, I learned about an interesting phenomenon from keynote speaker, clinical psychologist, and consultant Dr. Robi Sonderegger. According to Sonderegger, the English language is one of the few languages in…
Have you heard the expression that “There’s a fine line between love and hate”? The idea is that there’s so much passion required for every all-consuming emotion that things could easily tip from love to hate, and vice versa,…
Focusing on the negative aspects of life always seems to come more naturally than focusing on the positive ones. Whether we like it or not, bad things have a way of taking center stage and eclipsing the good, especially…
It’s one thing to go through a hardship yourself, but it’s another thing entirely to watch a hardship happen to a loved one. As a parent myself, I know how parents feel any pain and sadness that their children…
During actor André De Shields’ Tony Awards acceptance speech in 2019, he shared his three rules for his longevity: “One, surround yourself with people whose eyes light up when they see you coming. Two, slowly is the fastest…
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