Me, My Brother, and MG - a Column by Allen Francis

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 New York City, I found it mind-blowing to be in countries where people spoke English but…

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 at the time, woke up wailing, as if he were also in pain. My family told…

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 diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) in 1999, and he lives with a lot of its…

“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 beings, we want acknowledgment of our ambitions and achievements, as well as our struggles. I write…

“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 my twin brother, Aaron, and me. Aaron’s myasthenia gravis (MG) diagnosis in 1999, at the…

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; some scientific research even suggests that our memories can be unreliable. Emotions, voluntary…

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 want to know what’s in their soul? My twin brother, Aaron, successfully had strabismus surgery…

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 therapy. Comedian Chris Rock was at the peak of his creative powers in 1999, when he…

Dr. Seuss once said, “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” That’s another way of saying you never know what you have until it’s gone, whether it’s a relationship, a material item, or a mindset (such as innocence). It’s nice to remember…

Identity is how we define ourselves, and it can be established through nature or nurture, voluntarily or not. Part of our identity may even be shaped by the person we imagine ourselves to be or hope to become. A vocation, career, or profession can also be a mark of identity.