Book #4: Chapter 7

A page taken from my writing journal, 9/17/13

Joe and Rosie are at MGH in Boston, heading into the Wang Building. Joe has been to the ER at MGH while on duty many times, but never in the Wang, never up the elevator. He was referred by his PCP to a neurologist, to a “Movement Specialist.” Seems like a lot of fuss over a bad knee. But he’s going. He’s going for Rosie. She made the appointment.

Here we go into the meat of the story, Lisa. It feels like it took a long freakin time to get here, and there is still a long way to go. Keep going the way you’re going. I think the thing that has you worried is fitting Katie in. She’s essential. The kids need their experience and voice represented in this book. Huntington’s Disease is a family disease. It affects everyone, every generation. But how will I give Katie enough to make her important and yet not a distraction? Her story needs to stand alone, and then it needs to find interplay, connection with her dad’s story. How will their journeys intersect and impact each other?

I’m not there yet, so all this worrying is about something that hasn’t happened. Now you are with Joe, and he is at the neurologist at MGH, and that MUST happen no matter what. So go there with him, Lisa, and find out what happens. Be open, be vulnerable. See it, feel it, moment to moment, and infuse it with real information from your research. Tell the truth.