Who Wants To Marry My Dad

Dad Refuses To Pass Down Inheritance Of Illness

There are three black and white photographs of my dad that tell the story of the last few years. My brother, Andy, took them, and they are both beautiful and brutal.

The first one is of my dad on an August day in 2008. He's standing in a lake in the Adirondack Mountains. Because of his tremors he's down to 130 pounds from his normal weight of 170.

"He looks like he's out of a concentration camp, he does," my dad says about the person in the photo. "Nothing I ate, nothing I did, helped me put on weight, because it all went out through my tremors."

He says it was the worst moment in his 15-year battle with Parkinson's disease.

That photo helped push my father to do something he said he'd never do: have surgery to implant something called a deep brain stimulator, or DBS, a battery-powered medical device the size of a stopwatch. He made the decision after seeing how effective the DBS was in stopping tremors in some other Parkinson's patients.

A Tremor-Free Existence

The second photo of my dad was taken at the hospital as he was being prepped for surgery. The nurses are trying to secure his head in a metal halo.

"My tremors were just active all over the place, and they couldn't screw it in," dad says. "And they finally, after four people holding me down, got it into my skull."

The third photo was taken right after my dad got out of the hospital.

"Oh lord, now that one does upset me," my mom says, covering her face at the site of his shaved head, complete with jagged scars where the deep brain stimulator was inserted.

"That's the worst," she says. "That's really awful, oh gosh."

But as bad as he looked, that photo is the beginning of what he calls his new life: a tremor-free existence where he can hold a fork, steady a book and walk straight.

The problem is, despite gaining 40 pounds back and looking human again, my dad still has Parkinson's and it isn't going anywhere.

More Than What You See

My most vivid recollection as a kid of going to church was hearing a booming voice fill the building. It was my dad's voice. As an Episcopal priest, he commanded the room whether he was giving a sermon or singing a hymn.

Not any more. One of the ongoing issues my dad has is that his vocal chords aren't engaging like they used to.

Second Place is Nothing to Sneeze At…

It’s not necessarily all about winning. And everyone should remember that before she enters a pageant. It’s about the experience and bettering who you are. Just ask Halle Berry! Back in 1986 she was crowned Miss Ohio USA. That meant that she got to compete for the title of Miss USA. Halle’s a famous actress now—but back then she was just a 19-year-old pageant contestant. Do you think winning a pageant will change your life? Why don’t you ask a runner up?

Halle almost won the Miss USA pageant that year. But it just wasn’t meant to be. She came in second to Christy Fichtner of Texas. That didn’t stop Halle from having a successful career, though. She even went on to be the first African American woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress. She’s had many successful movie roles, and she’s an ambassador for Revlon.

So what happened to Christy Fichtner? Last we heard, she starred on the reality show Who Wants to Marry My Dad?