Reviews for Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease

The average rating for Saving Milly: Love, Politics, and Parkinson's Disease based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-11-16 00:00:00 Kerry Busheikin This country has an aversion to sickness and death, two things that will in time touch each and every one of us. Not a pleasant thought. For 18 years I watched my own mother combat, with no hope of winning, the same illness Milly is fighting. Morton Kondracke is to be commended for sharing Milly's story. Heart wrenching, Saving Milly is by no means an easy read, but it is a must read. It is more than a story about Parkinson's disease. It's also a story about love and commitment and, yes, obligation, but also of politics. And all of it will open your eyes as well as your heart. Kondracke doesn't sugar coat Parkinson's, he displays it in all of its vulgarity. Nor does he paint himself a saint in being Milly's primary caregiver. He gets angry with her, loses his temper, shouts at her. But it's not really Milly he is angry with. It's the Parkinson's. Yet how does one vent one's rage at a disease? He also writes of the politics of Parkinson's, how, unlike cancer and AIDS, research for this debilitating disease is under funded. Kondracke shares his story with a journalistic detachment, but even so the reader will find him or herself moved by his plight and the plight of Milly. His message is simple: a cure for Parkinson's has been agonizingly near for a long time, but money is needed now. He knows that were a cure discovered tomorrow it would be too late to help Milly, but his fight goes on so that others might be saved from suffering her fate. My hat is off to Morton Kondracke for sharing this side of his life, a side that one day most of us will experience firsthand, but also one which too many don't wish to glimpse, preferring instead to pretend it won't ever happen to them.

Review # 2 was written on 2020-07-04 00:00:00 Rocco Constantino This book was very hard for me to read as last month my own mom passed away because of complications due to Parkinson's disease. Milly was a fighter and she fought long and hard. There are so many similarities between Molly's story and my mother's. It is sad to say that a disease like Parkinson's is still around decades after the first patient was diagnosed. The debate of funding etc is a different story which I won't write about in my review. Milly's husband was an amazing caregiver and he helped to fight the legislative battle for her and many who suffer or have suffered from this debilitating disease. This story shows us true love for better or for worse and what the human spirit can endure.