The source of this article is the Lima News: http://tinyurl.com/a385q
OUR DON MCKINLEY MAKES THE NEWS: Couple uses laughter to deal with Parkinson’s
By BETH L. JOKINEN
419-993-2093
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LIMA — Don McKinley calls his wife of 59 years “mean.”
“When I fall, she won’t pick me up,” the 80-year-old said as he peeks
over at his wife with a smile.
Vivian McKinley just laughs at her husband, who has suffered from
Parkinson’s Disease for the past 36 years. She knows the last thing he
wants is her help.
“If you don’t push like he has, then the muscles quit working,” she said.
Don’s battle with the degenerative illness has not been easy, but the
couple gets through it by laughing, and even joking about it. One of Don’s
scooters is decorated with a “Parkinson’s is not for sissies,” sign.
“If we didn’t laugh, we would not have made it,” Vivian said.
The couple is even able to laugh about the latest issue they have
faced. They woke Tuesday morning to find their 3-foot-tall cement horse on
its side with a broken leg in their lawn on the corner of Cable Road and
Lakewood Avenue.
The couple concluded that someone thought they could move it, but
quickly found the horse to be heavier than it looked. It weighs about 300
pounds.
“They might have taken it if it had not weighed so much,” Don said.
“It lived through the ice storm with branches and things falling around
it,” Vivian said of why it couldn’t have just blown over.
The concrete horse is once again standing up and the leg will likely be
fixed soon. It’s been with the couple for 18 years, a result of Don’s
battle with Parkinson’s. After all, a cowboy should have a horse.
Don began wearing cowboy boots when he was diagnosed because he can’t
tie shoes and the boots help steady him. He wears western shirts because
they have snaps. The buttons are too difficult for him.
“We would be out and people would say, ‘Where’s your horse,’” Vivian
told the story. “When we saw the horse, Don said, ‘I’m going to get that so
when people ask where’s my horse, I can say it’s at home.’”
While dismayed that someone would try to take or damage the horse that
many in the city associate Don with, the couple says they still know there
are good people in Lima. Just the other day, two strangers stopped to help
Don when he had fallen from his scooter while outside.
“We have decent, respectable people in the city of Lima,” Don said.
After Don was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, he could barely walk, feed or
dress himself. He quickly took the attitude that he was not going to live
that way, and his wife supported him.
“Parkinson’s is a sickness and I want to beat it. It’s mind over
matter,” Don said.
“To him, to just sit was not living,” Vivian said.
Just sitting is the last thing Don has done the last 36 years. He used
to bowl and golf, and even painted the couple’s basement. He still mows his
own grass, and while heavily reliant on his motorized scooters, still walks
some.
Don still does leg and arm exercises every night, as well as working
with his face muscles. Many Parkinson’s patients have little facial
expression because the muscles do not work.
“He has set for 36 years with a mirror to work those muscles, making
faces, so he can keep those expressions,” Vivian said.
Through his own struggle, Don continues to help others. He has worked
through the Parkinson’s Foundation for the past 10 years, offering advice
on the Internet to people with the disease and their caregivers.
“It’s what I have learned,” Don said, then demonstrating the best way
for a person having trouble to get up from a chair. “It’s just like any
job, when you have been at it a long time, you learn shortcuts.”
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