I am writing this blog with a very heavy heart. My uncle passed away early Wednesday morning. He was hospitalized a few weeks ago with a pneumonia, UTI and kidney infection. Sound familiar? https://multipleexperiences.org/2022/03/04/multiple-sclerosis-vs-pneumonia/ My uncle also had Parkinson’s disease. MS and Parkinson’s seem to always be grouped together. Why???

MS and Parkinson’s both affect your central nervous system, which includes your brain and spinal cord. That’s why they both can affect how you move, sleep, feel, and talk.

These diseases both affect your nerves. MS can break down the coating, called myelin, that surrounds and protects your nerves. In Parkinson’s, nerve cells in a part of your brain slowly die off. https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/multiple-sclerosis-ms-parkinsons

Unfortunately, his disease played more havoc with his pneumonia than mine. I got through it,with difficulty but through it nonetheless. My uncle didn’t.

My uncle and my aunt were like my third set of parents after my dad and stepmom plus mom and stepdad. I lived down the road from them most of my adult life. They always kept an eye on me from the day my MS was diagnosed. My diagnosis came in easily 10 years before my uncle’s diagnosis. He was inspirational. He did anything and everything that would help him. He joined the Parkinson’s rock steady boxing . He did daily exercises that kept his hands strong. He hiked. He was so active. In many ways he influenced me with my own exercising mentally having MS. I don’t know if I ever told him that. He gave as much to others volunteering at a crisis center right after he retired. He was an amazing person. I said that already, didn’t I? It was just so true.

I’ve known him my whole life. By blood my aunt is my relative and my uncle by marriage. I just never known life without him being my family. He was someone I could count on if I needed help for any reason. He and my aunt were always on my daughter’s emergency contact list throughout her school years. They are on my emergency contact on my phone. I always knew they were there if I needed them. I can still hear his laugh making a joke, at my aunts expense, as he sat in my bedroom last month when he came to visit. I wish I knew he wouldn’t be here this month so I could have given him a better hug goodbye.

I’m not ready to say goodbye to anyone in that generation. That includes all my parents and my aunts and uncles. I never expected I’d be saying goodbye to this uncle. He was fit and healthy in my eyes. My heart is broken for my aunt. That was her true love. Like my grandma, her mom, when her true love died, my grandpa, so did a piece of my grandma. Tomorrow we are burying a piece of my aunt with my uncle. My cousins too. My uncle was such a good person. I’m so sad to lose him. He will always be loved and remembered.