And I Always Will

About the Book

This is a true love story with a dramatic and exciting twist. After several years of excitement and immense fun together, we were married on the beach at Whale Beach in Sydney [see cover]. Our backgrounds and experience were very closely matched-even down to teaching at universities and consulting with unions and employers-so we went into business bringing French students to Australian universities and colleges. We loved it.

Things started to go off the rails when we discovered that Ashlyn had inherited Huntington's Disease-a degenerative neurological disorder that affects movement, emotions, personality, and judgment. There is no known medicinal cure.

We had to build our own program of Pilates exercises, Tai Chi, diet, and especially art classes. We discovered that Ashlyn was actually very talented with oil paints and a brush. Her neurologist explained that the work had apparently increased the neuroplasticity in her brain. That was the exciting twist, as you will see.

About the Authors

We had parallel careers that started when Ashlyn graduated in Psychology at Sydney University and I graduated in Adelaide, completing postgraduate studies at Melbourne University. We both registered as psychologists some 50 years ago. Thousands of people have told us their stories during that time, greatly enriching our lives.

Soon after we met, we started a book of "Funny Things," which is the basis for the first part of this book.