My mom another HD Warrior

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 Hello, welcome back I am Ashley Fajardo and I wanted to share a little of my history. I want to share about my mom, Sandra Lane. She was a beautiful woman who had a smile that could light up any room. She loved to travel and was always very athletic. She had a laugh, that was contagious. She loved her two kids more than anything they were her whole world, my brother Courtney and me. 

However, when I was born, she was already beginning to show signs of Huntington’s disease at age __30__. Which is a neurological disorder that causes deterioration in a person’s physical, mental, and emotional abilities usually during their prime working years, and currently there is no cure. Most people start to develop symptoms in their 30’s to 50's. Symptoms usually worsen over the course of 10-25 years and affect the ability to reason, walk, and talk. It is a genetic disorder which means Each parent with a defective gene could pass along either a defective copy or a healthy copy, leaving a child with a 50% chance of inheriting the disease. 

My grandfather was sick with the disease and passed away when my mom was only seven years old. I never met him, but I heard he was an amazing man, and he was in the military. He loved his wife and daughter and taking pictures. 

My mom was symptomatic now and my grandma helped to take care of her and us.  My grandmother was a true angel sent from heaven above. She was beautiful inside and out and she had a servant's heart. She loved her daughter and even took her traveling to every country before my mom was too symptomatic to travel anymore. My grandma’s biggest concern was if she passed away before my mom, who would be able to take care of her? 

I remember when I was just 13 years old, and I was away in Tennessee in July for equestrian vaulting nationals. I was on the bus on the way home from a celebratory dinner and I started to cry. When my friend asked me what was wrong, I told her that I was worried that something was wrong with my mom. Sure enough, I was right, my mom passed away the day before from pneumonia complications with her HD. She was _____43_ years old. This was a very difficult time in my life, but I know that with God everything happens in his timing.

I think of all of the wonderful memories that we had together especially when I was younger, we used to play and she would go to gymnastics with me in her electric wheelchair. I would always play a dress-up with her. I think of her even more now that I am a grown woman with Huntington’s disease, and I am near the same age as her when she passed away. 


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