Our life...
This picture was taken Christmas Day 2005. I waited 10 years to tell Andrew and Hannah about their first mother's illness and explain their at-risk status (more). I gambled that they might find out from someone else but I really wanted them to be children (and not worry like Trevor did about dying). This may shed some light as to why someone would take off with his family and spend two years living in Italy.I explained that their first mother's grandparents had two children and that one of them got this disease from their mother. This man was their grandfather. He had six children and three got the disease (their mother who died, their aunt who died before her, and their uncle who doesn't yet show symptoms). Then I explained that their first mother had five children and that each had a 50 percent chance of having inherited the gene that causes this disease. After this explanation, they asked some questions. They wanted to know if there was a cure or treatment for HD. I told them that medical science had progressed a lot during the past 10 years and that they would have another 16-18 years before they could get the illness (if they had the gene) but that to date there was no cure or treatment. I was very proud of them (and of all our at-risk children). If I could, I would trade them places.
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