Huntington's Disease, is a rare neurological inherited disease affecting 1 in 20,000 people of Western European descent. It is passed on from generation to generation, needing only one affected parent to pass on the affected gene causing the disease. There is a 50/50 chance that any child of an affected parent will inherit the disease. Pretty good odds, if you were a betting person, that you won't know someone with Huntington's disease, much less actually have it affect you personally. Not so in my family. My mother is one of five children born to my grandparents. My mother was the only one of the five who was not affected with the disease. This morning, the last of my mother's siblings, Aunt Patricia, succumbed to Huntington's. I've posted about this disease before, when my Aunt Rosie (Catherine) died.
My mom's family, in the picture above, are (clockwise from top left) my mother Mildred, Patricia, Patrick, Susan, and Catherine. I thank God often that my mother was not affected and that I am lucky enough to have avoided this disease. (I have one cousin, Bill, that has the disease. It affected him roughly ten years earlier than it commonly affects most. He is 2 months younger than I am.) I miss my aunts and uncle dearly. They were all very good people who had hardships in their lives to overcome and were not deserving of their suffering. They were taken from us way to soon. God bless them all.
