About Me

I’m 47 years old and blessed to be married to my very best friend. I’m the very proud grandmother of 4. Unfortunately, all of my grandchildren live scattered across the country, so seeing them on a regular basis is a challenge. I stay busy by being active not only with my church, but in the community as well. I am the group facilitator for the MS support group that meets in our small mountain community. Being the group facilitator has given me the opportunity to meet some wonderful people and keeps me busy with keeping up on the latest MS research information to pass on.

I enjoy crafts and card making and I think the Cricut is the best invention since the wheel! I’m still learning all the things the Cricut can do, but I know it sure helps make card making A LOT easier for me.

While I enjoy card making, my passion is photography. Especially nature photography. I lose myself behind the lens, often for hours at a time. Photography is a great equalizer for me. I can shoot from my scooter or my chair. It doesn’t matter. (Although getting up off the ground after shooting at knee level can be a bit of a challenge)!

My home life also provides great photography subjects. One of which is a 75 pound, 11 month old, Olde English Bulldogge named Petunia. (Toonie for short). She is definitely my girl and has a face only her mother could love (and I adore it). The other is a 10 pound cat named Maggie Malone. Maggie thinks she rules the house, and well, she might. However, I couldn’t imagine my life without either of them in it. All my animals (including Valor, my service dog who passed last year after 7 years of faithful service), have absorbed my tears into their coats when MS just got to be too much to bear.

I really believe that every MSer must consciously make the decision to live their life, or or they will be forced to live their MS.

My decision was to live my LIFE. It hasn’t always been easy to stick by that decision. Site reactions, medication side effects, optic neuritis, the pain of muscle spascity and the depression associated with MS has made that decision very difficult to keep at times. There have been times when I wanted to just give up.

However, I knew I had made my choice and once made I was determined to stick by it. Did I want to just give up and become someone who lived in fear of what MS COULD do to me? No. I wanted to be a SURVIVOR of MS. I want to be able to play with my grandchildren, trim my roses, take long walks with my husband (even if I’m riding a scooter during those walks), bake brownies and most importantly, pick up my camera and document the life I’m LIVING.

Having MS doesn’t mean that life is over. It simply means that it’s changed.