Columns

Our daughter, Abby, who has Rett syndrome, just turned 29. It’s the kind of number that makes a parent think, “Can that possibly be right?” And, “Good golly, we’ve been doing this for a long time.” Abby may or may not care about birthdays, but if she does, she’s…

For more than a week now, our daughter, Abby, has been fighting off respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, a rapacious bug that invades the respiratory tract. I gave it to her. It’s hard to watch her struggling with the deep cough, the phlegm, the runny nose. Abby, who is 29…

“Do we have chunky peanut butter?” It was an ordinary question my husband asked one afternoon last year. He was standing in the kitchen, scanning the pantry, and thinking about sandwiches. But his question stopped me cold. For 15 years, only smooth peanut butter filled our shelves. Not because we…

I never thought about where I sat in the school’s gymnasium until my late daughter, Cammy, gained a wheelchair when she was 3. For most of my life, taking a seat was automatic — I’d climb to the top row of the bleachers, without hesitation, and settle in wherever the…

On Jan. 3, 2012 — my husband’s birthday — our late daughter, Cammy, received her voice. It wasn’t a voice in the traditional sense, as it didn’t come from her mouth or vocal cords. Rather, it came from a computer — a technology so advanced it felt almost unreal.

Dec. 13 marks two years since my oldest daughter, Cammy, passed away from complications of Rett syndrome. She was 14 years, 9 months, and 3 days old. I hold on to that number because it matters. It’s not just a measure of time; it’s a line in our family’s…

While raising a child with profound special needs, I felt like we didn’t have control over much. Rett syndrome grabbed ahold of our late daughter Cammy, and there wasn’t much we could do about it. The only things we felt we could control were raising awareness, fundraising, and assisting…

I’ve always been fascinated by birth order theory, which suggests that the order in which children are born may influence their personality traits and relationship roles. As the youngest of six kids, I loved being the baby of the family. While my siblings would say I was spoiled,…

My oldest daughter Cammy weighed 40 pounds at her heaviest. Having a 40-pound 5-year-old would be fine, but Cammy was 14 when she weighed that. Her 4-foot-tall, 40-pound frame was at “failure to thrive” for most of her life. Cammy’s weight was always a catch-22 for us. It’s scary and…

Grief is complicated. There’s no playbook, but I wish there were. I try to prepare myself for events that I know will evoke grief, but I can’t stop it from bubbling up. My oldest daughter, Cammy, passed away in December 2023 at the age of 14 from complications of…