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Hm, I don't really know how to handle this... You might remember that I told you about meeting a woman this past summer, and that she didn't seem to mind my being ill? Well, then we both thought it was MS, and that was OK by her. When I wrote her and said that it was PD, she broke down completely. My letter was written in a positive mood, and I really think this is better: there are pills that help against the symptoms, and a lot of research going on. But for her this was worse than MS, because her grandfather died when she was 11, and he had been very handicapped during the last years. So for her PD is something terrible! You know, it's not easy for a child to have a nuanced(?) image of an illness, no matter which... Those images often stay with us as we grow older. Stupidly, we never swapped phonenumbers, just addresses, so right now she's in Israel working, and I'm in Sweden. Only means of contact: letters. I sent her a letter this past Friday, with my number in it and an "order" to call me Collect Call as soon as she gets the letter. I enclosed a short explanation of what Parkinson's is, and a newsclipping describing a new research project that sounds promising. (I found them at www.parkinsons.org, I think) So, how am I going to make her understand that there is hope? I mean, I _do_ intend to listen to her. I will not tell her that she is stupid to be worried, because she has every right to be. Plus, if she hadn't worried, _I_ would have been a bit worried, I think.... Her worrying shows that she truly cares for me. I just hope her love is strong enough to survive this. If she leaves me I don't know what to do. Ok, I won't kill myself over it, but it would be one of the worst possible things that could happen.... To make matters worse, she hasn't written a single word to me since the desperately unhappy letter I recieved 4-5 days ago. /John.