A Still Life…A Life Still

The disease which afflicts both our parents, Susan’s father and Stephanie’s mother, is known as ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Medical professionals know very little about the disease that has such a simple 3-letter label.  Doctors can tell you neither the cause nor the cure, or even any effective treatment, only the inevitable outcome. Our desire, in part, is to reclaim these three letters from devastating diagnosis (which they represent, when first told to our parents, and to us) to alphabetic code for what is also real, and known, about ALS: that it can mean not only the progressive death of motor nerve cells, but also a progressive appreciation for grace, beauty and meaning amidst life and loss. We’re reclaiming the letters ALS as prompts for our titles, both the site title, A Life Still, and as the first letters of each blog post (ok, we may cheat occasionally, but we’re trying!!).