Saving Milly - Love, Politics and Parkinson's Disease (Hardcover, illustrated edition)

A deeply moving, unflinchingly honest memoir by the renowned political journalist of his extraordinary relationship with his wife, Milly, and how her battle with Parkinson's disease has transformed their lives. 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.