Yesterday my hometown newspaper, The Wednesday Journal, featured a front page article about my life with ALS. The writer, Ken Trainor, and I spoke on the phone several times before the piece ran. He visited my parents to get their take on how ALS has affected our family. He even interviewed a friend and former neighbor. And yesterday he came out with a beautiful, thoughtful article that you can read here.

When I was a kid growing up in Oak Park, Illinois, I had a job delivering The Wednesday Journal. If you are particularly observant, you may have guessed that I delivered the paper on Wednesdays. On those mornings, I got up early and went across the street to my friend Stephanie’s house, where the papers were sitting in flat stacks, next to a large box of plastic bags.

First, we folded them up, wrapped a rubber band around each one, and bagged it. They left our hands black with ink, and the smell of it lingered, so that if I picture Steph’s enclosed front porch, even now, I can summon up the scent—fresh ink on paper and her schnauzer named Fritz—that goes with it. We piled our bagged papers into enormous over-the-shoulder tote bags provided by The Wednesday Journal, and headed off on our route. I had the east side of Scoville Avenue and she had the west. For four blocks, we perfected our paper-tossing arcs, standing on the sidewalk and launching the bags onto each front stoop. I loved nailing a perfect landing. Then we went home and got ready for school. Read More>