Allen Francis is a New York City native, graduate from Marymount Manhattan College, and a former college advisor. He writes from his experience of having a twin brother, Aaron, who has been afflicted with myasthenia gravis (MG) since 1999. From his perspective of a loving sibling, Allen wants to learn more about MG and advocate for more awareness about the rare and medically unknown condition. Allen is also a lifelong comic book fan dedicated to launching his own company writing comic books with his twin.
Talk show host Conan O’Brien, among many others, once said, “When all else fails, there is always delusion.” As human beings, we want to believe what we want to believe, even when red flags…
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The writer and editor Christy Leigh Stewart, who lives with a terminal illness, once said, “Remission is not a cure. It’s an adjective of disability.” In other words, remission from a disease refers to…
“Failure is not an option. Winning and learning are the options.” I don’t know who said that quote, though it’s been attributed (with slightly different grammar) to the neurologist and writer Debasish Mridha. But…
Yoga expert Vanda Scaravelli once said, “Movement is the song of the body.” Every person has a rhythm when they walk, move, or use mannerisms to communicate. Since my twin brother, Aaron, was…
I started traveling as a backpacker when I was 19 years old, back in the 1990s. I spent a semester studying in London in 1997. As a naive kid from the South Bronx in…
When I was a toddler, I tripped and fell into a wall. The impact caused a small wound on my forehead, and I cried out in pain. My twin brother, Aaron, who was napping…
Do you ever use a phrase often without fully appreciating its meaning, especially its meaning to others? I’ve been thinking about the phrase “seeing double” for some time. My twin brother, Aaron, was…
“To acknowledge another is to paint strokes of kindness on the canvas of existence.” I was unsuccessful in trying to find the source of this quote, but I like it a lot. As human…
“It’s the things that are left unsaid that take up the most space in our hearts.” I don’t know who wrote that, but it reminded me about how much has been left unsaid between…
In the Irish writer Oscar Wilde’s play “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895), he writes that memory “is the diary that we all carry about with us.” Still, our memories can’t always be trusted;…
You’ve probably heard of the saying, “The eyes are the window to your soul.” Yet how do we judge people when their eyes are misaligned through no fault of their own? Do we still…
This column describes the experiences of the author’s brother with side effects to several MG medications. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a…
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