Me, My Brother, and MG — Allen Francis

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.

Author Tom Clancy once wrote, “Surviving is much more painful than death.” Realizing how much my twin brother, Aaron, has been surviving with myasthenia gravis (MG) since his diagnosis in 1999 when he was 24 is painful for me. He lives in New York…

Sometimes we say so much about unimportant things that we leave the important things unsaid. Or, we talk about important things using codes or euphemisms. After all, some studies suggest that more than 90% of human communication is nonverbal. What is unsaid or implied sometimes carries more weight than…

One thing that always amazes me about my twin brother, Aaron, is his drive to stay as positive and active as possible. Aaron was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis (MG) in 1999 at the age of 24. It was a heartbreaking diagnosis. Aaron was a young and very active…

“Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.” That quote from an unknown author is one of my favorites. Contentment is a mindset we usually acquire after maturity or contemplative loss. After my divorce when I was in my 30s,…