Julia, with her mouth open

Julia, with her mouth open
Originally uploaded by goyishekop.

Julia's husband, Brian, was a professor of biophysics. Then he got Huntington's Chorea -- Woody Guthrie's disease.

Technically, I suppose he'd had it all his life, but just didn't know. Huntington's is a single-gene, dominant, neurodegenerative disease, with a post-reproductive age of onset.

Julia is now his round-the-clock, live-in nurse.

If you're from a Huntington's pedigree, you watch one of your parents die from it, and spend forty or fifty years waiting to see if the flip of the coin has given it to you.

By the time you find out, you already have a family. Then, you know what's in store for you, and you know you've also passed it to half of your children.

Julia had a birthday party for Brian in the park. I went, not expecting to know anyone, but happy to give her whatever support and help I could.

I did see one guy at the same park that I'd worked with, years before, and went over to say hello. It was nice to run in to him.

As I watched him leave, throwing a football to his kids, Julia came over.

"Oh, you know Aiden, too! That's so sweet. He's Brian's son."