When I was growing up my grandmother Sarah worked as an award winning sales woman at Jelleff's department store. (I still have the "crown" she won). She took the bus to our house to babysit. We went to her apartment and played with stuff in her dresser drawers, specifically fake fox heads and tails.
Then what seemed like all of a sudden she was in a wheelchair . Surgery on her knees (arthritis) and subsequent PD diagnosis and I don't think I saw her walk again.
I remember visiting her in New York in the Beth Abraham Home for Incurables ( FABULOUS NAME ) in the Bronx. (where Dr. Oliver Sacks was working as portrayed in the movie "Awakenings")
She was in a bed. She was very quiet. She was not the grandma we knew. My mother visited her EVERY month. She was "moved" to NY where her 6 sisters could , on a rotating schedule, visit everyday. In DC it was only my mom to visit and the combination of that stress (my mom visited everyday) and other life stuff literally made my mother seriously ill and hospitalized for almost 2 months.
So when my mother Lola was diagnosed with PD .... EEK it was scary ......visions of wheelchairs and "homes" ......BUT .....it couldn't have been more different !!! My mother continued playing tennis, (for a while) traveling , volunteering at the White House, hosting family parties and celebrations, driving on the Beltway, telling my sister and I what to do !!!!
Lola went to the Kennedy Center (in a wheelchair) and after my father died refused to even consider moving to a smaller home, or in with me or my sister. Fortunately she was able to afford live in caregivers. (we were lucky to find competent caring women )
So when I go to PD exercise classes I see WAY MORE men than women. WHY? The women with PD are probably too busy going places, taking care of family matters, living their lives with and despite PD. Good for us.
