Saving Milly

Description for SAVING MILLY: LOVE, POLITICS, AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE by Morton Kondracke with a foreword by Michael J Fox:

Morton Kondracke did not intend to marry Millicent Martinez. He intended to marry an Ivy League heiress whose connections and credentials might help his career. But Milly -- a Mexican American, inner city Chicago kid and daughter of a radical labor organizer who grew up to be a dynamo -- eventually captured his heart. They married, and loved and fought with each other passionately for twenty years. Then one day in 1987, Milly noticed a glitch in her handwriting; a small tremor which would lead to the shattering diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

SAVING MILLY is Kondracke's powerfully moving chronicle of his vital and volatile marriage; one that has endured and deepened despite the devastating physical and emotional effects of a chronic and as-yet incurable disease. It is also the inspiring, sometimes astoundingly frank story of his own transformation from careerist to caregiver and disease activist -- a process that has deepened his religious faith. Finally, it is an exploration of the realities of "disease politics" in the campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's, and a passionate argument for doubling the government's minuscule investment in medical research. For any one of the million Americans with Parkinson's and their families; for anyone inspired by books like John Bayley's Elegy for Iris or Christopher Reeve's Still Me; for anyone whose religious faith has been tested by tragedy; and for anyone who loves a real-life love story, SAVING MILLY is unforgettable reading.