A break from travel - Lou Gehrig's disease

As those who know Randy and I personally have heard, my mother Lillian was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS) last September. My grandmother Jean died from the same disease in 1979. It's a progressive neuromuscular disease - my mother's form of it is known as bulbar ALS and her first symptoms appeared in her throat and tongue muscles. She lost the ability to speak and swallow really before the disease had even been formally diagnosed. In recent months and weeks, her ability to walk has begun to deteriorate, and she will soon be wheelchair bound.

Ironically, perhaps, my mom is also the biggest New York Yankees fan you'll ever meet. She loves baseball - I grew up in a house where the World Series was a bigger deal than any other event! Her special love for the Yankees came because she's from New York, and her parents were big fans themselves.

On July 4, Major League Baseball is going to recognize the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous retirement speech and kick off a campaign to raise awareness about the disease that ended Gehrig's life. The speech will be read during the 7th inning stretch of every major league game happening tomorrow, and all the players will wear patches that read "4 ALS." "4" was Gehrig's number, and 4 ALS is an effort by Major and Minor League Baseball, teaming with four ALS organizations, to raise money for research to help find a cure for ALS. The AlS Association, the group my family has chosen to work with, is also sponsoring a fundraiser called "Covering All the Bases."

You can learn more and sign up to support Covering All the Bases here. Learn more about Gehrig, the "Iron Horse" of baseball, and his all-time stats here. Read Gehrig's farewell speech and listen to audio clips here.

Randy and I, along with my sisters, brother, and extended family, will be participating in the Walk to Defeat ALS in Austin later this year. You can learn more about that here. I will have more information on how you can support us, and this very worthy cause, later in the summer.