A brief aside...

I've been reading this book lateley that I checked out from the library. It is called "Ten Years to Live" by Henry J. Schut. I originally checked it out because I had seen it on websites as recommended reading and was under the impression that it was about a family that was dealing with Friedreich's Ataxia which is what my 16 year old niece, Allison, has. The disease that the family in the book struggles with is actually a different kind of Ataxia called Marie's Ataxia. "Ataxia" is just a general term that means loss of coordination. When I checked it out, I thought "hmm, this looks really worn for a book about such a rare disease" but I looked at the publish date, 1978. Ok, the book has been around for almost 30 years. When I began reading it, I understood why the cover was so worn. The family is local. They are from Silver Creek, Minnesota which is just a little way down the road from here. What is even crazier is that the author's son is a neurologist in my town. I haven't finished the book yet, but I believe that this family actually had some dealings with the founding of the National Ataxia Foundation. Small world indeed.