The Rabbi Merle E. Singer Story

When I was a young man I was privileged to be among those who joined the March on Washington to support the civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King. That experience led me to a lifelong involvement in advocating for social change.

Today, I’m fighting to see change in how we approach brain disease. Part of it, of course, is the need for financial support for medical science to find a cure for Parkinson’s Disease.

There is also another part of support that is just as important—and it goes beyond Parkinson’s to all of those who suffer from brain disorders that have diminished their ability to communicate.

The word “exiled” is the first to come to mind to describe how brain disorder patients feel when their voices weaken, or the words won’t come and they become hard to understand. Isolation is a gradual and debilitating aspect of losing your ability to enjoy the simple pleasure of a having a conversation. The world shuts down around you.

Kindness and patience are often in short supply when you come up against a person who can’t move as quickly or speak as clearly as he once did.

When you live with Parkinson’s Disease, you gradually begin to feel you life changing. Layer by layer, your abilities are diminished, or taken away.

I could hide my symptoms for a long time. But that, too, was taken away. This is my story.