How Ulla-Carin Took Life by the Oars

I did my case study on a woman named Ulla-Carin Lindquist who was a famous Swedish news anchor and journalist.  She was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis when she was 50 years old.  Reading her book, Rowing Without Oars, really helped me understand more about the disease and how it truly affected every part of her life.  She was a very active woman who was physically fit, type-A, and sometimes had high stress.  This is common of people who are diagnosed with ALS and there is not much explanation to this.  It was hard to read about her deterioration as the disease slowly started to affect her motor neurons and she lost the ability to control her muscles.  I am struck by how devastating that must be for her and her family, especially since she is cognitively still aware. The disease is neurodegenerative and affects voluntary movement through motor neurons.  So she slowly lost her ability to control her muscles, eventually leading to her respiratory system. 

One of my biggest take aways from this was how much Ulla-Carin cared about her families well-being throughout all of this process. She wanted her two sons to be able to cope with her illness and know that she loved them and was still their mom throughout all of this.  She brought in many people to talk to about death and dying with her and her family.  In the midst of her illness she truly cared about her family and that was inspiring. After her passing her family started a foundation in her honor and have raised a lot of funds for ALS research.