I used to love traveling. I won’t lie and say I adored the airport or being on a plane, but those parts were never problematic. Of course, things got tougher after Scarlett was born. We used to fly, just the two of us, to visit my family in Chicago, and we had some dicey moments in planes. She would scream, I would sweat, other passengers would wave their iPhones in her face, and we would end up hiding in the back of the plane by the bathrooms until she calmed down.

But it was never enough to deter me from our trips together. I really enjoyed being able to travel with her, and for the most part, she was well behaved and received compliments at the end of each flight from relieved passengers who had at first eyed her with suspicion.

In the spring of 2012, I was having a lot of trouble with my feet, and I knew ALS was a possibility, but I hadn’t yet been diagnosed. Scarlett had just turned two, and she and I were flying back to San Francisco after a visit with my parents. Read More>