Columns

Living with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) has involved a series of challenges and triumphs, each shaping the person I am today. As 2025 approaches, I’m reflecting on that journey as well as imagining the path ahead — especially since the coming year includes a significant milestone for me. I’ll…

I’m more than a caregiver, but it took a recent life change for me to realize that. I’m a mom to seven children I share with my husband, Jason, including three of our sons — Max, 19, Rowen, 15, and Charlie, 13 — who live with Duchenne muscular…

My wife, Wendy, and I had a wonderful Sunday recently. We rose early and hit the road to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where we had lived for over 41 years before moving to Pittsburgh to be closer to our kids and grandkids. I’d agreed to play for the 10:30 a.m. service at…

Last Saturday, I performed a monologue titled “Connection” at the Enabling Lives Festival here in Singapore. ART:DIS, a local nonprofit that uses the arts to support people with disabilities, organized the event as part of its BEYOND DIS:PLAY performing arts and theater mentorship program. The festival centered on a…

I think about things deeply, rolling ideas around in my head until they make sense. My creative side, the writer, likes to wonder in this way. And as an introvert who naturally tends to keep everything to myself, writing is often the way I can express ideas and feelings after…

I’m getting more comfortable using my walker. However, it just doesn’t pay to trust the darned thing. The other day in my bedroom, I was putting clothes away. I was planning to take a shower later in the day, so I thought I’d save myself some steps. I grabbed…

The power to influence or even direct people’s behavior or the course of events is part of a typical definition of “control.” When living with a chronic illness, as I am with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, our desire to control the course of events can be a creative balancing act.

Life feels busy, which is no surprise to me. My husband, Jason, and I share seven children: Lexi, 23; Max, 19; Chance, 17; Rowen, 15; Charlie, 13; Mary, 10; and Callie, 2. Max, Rowen, and Charlie live with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Our lives are busy year-round. This year…

On Saturday, I presented at the Participation — Inclusion in Action Conference 2024, which was held in my home of Singapore for the first time. My physiotherapist at the National University Hospital, who’s also a disability and healthcare researcher and one of the event’s key organizers, invited me to…

“Kidney stones!” my 13-year-old son, Charlie, exclaimed when I asked him what I should write about this week. My husband, Jason, and I have seven children: Lexi, 23; Max, 19; Chance, 17; Rowen, 15; Charlie, Mary, 10; and Callie, 2. Max, Rowen, and Charlie have Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).