As a kid, Myrna (Grandma) would take me along to this funny sounding town in southeast Wisconsin called Mukwonago. Strangers have a tough time pronouncing the town correctly. Myrna's Mother and Dad had an 80 acre farm near Mukwonago. I remember driving through a field on a road with two ruts for the tires with grass between the ruts to get the farm house. I was probably 10-11 at the time so it was early 1950's. The farm house was old and needed repair and there was a "farm smell" that permeated the house. To a city kid, the smell was "yuk". Cooking was on an old wood stove. There was a porch on the front, a porch on the back and a porch on the side of the house.
Myrna had an older brother Bill residing near Mukwonago with his own farm and at the time, pretty successful. Myrna had a younger brother living with her Mother and Dad named Everitt. He was slightly younger than Myrna and had a degenerative disease.
Everitt was born December 16, 1903 in Mukwonago. His full name was John Everitt Roberts and he had a normal childhood living on the farm. I don't know when Everitt died, but it had to be in the 1950's. According to Myrna, when Everitt was around 19 years old, he began to experience hand tremors and some slurred speech. It got progressively worse and was diagnosed as Parkinsons disease. There is no cure! I think movie star Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's.
By the time I was introduced to Everitt, his arm and head shook steadily as the result of the constant tremors and he lost muscle control. He slurred words and was hard to understand. Because I was 10 years old, Everitt was scary to be around because I didn't understand the disease. He always wore a short front brimmed hat.
Myrna as she got older, had a little palsy in her hands. In fact, she didn't have to mix sugar and milk in her coffee because her shaking hands would do it for her as she carried it to the table. There was always this question about some heredity to Parkinson's but the medical experts say there is no link. Myrna's shakes were not tremors, just a loss of some motors skill.
So I went to the medical periodicals and found the greatest reassurance of all time, "genetics doesn't appear to play a major role in Parkinson's although it tends to occur in some families". What the hell does that mean? Talk about "double-speak".
I wish I could go back and visit Everitt today knowing what I have learned over time. I would treat him warmly and respect what was happening to him. He would no longer be "scary".
So Grasshoppers, if your body begins to tremble out of control, maybe something exciting is happening or maybe you should pay heed. There is some family history of similar occurance.
My purpose with this blog is to benchmark family medical history not to scare anyone.
May your days be healthy and rewarding.
Love,
Dad