An Open Letter to My Parents by Kendall Harvey

It’s one thing to go through a hardship yourself, but it’s another thing entirely to watch a hardship happen to a loved one. As a parent myself, I know how parents feel any pain and sadness that their children endure. In fact, a child’s pain can almost seem greater for the parent because they often think they are helpless. Therefore, I can only imagine how it must be for my parents to watch me struggle through Friedreich’s ataxia (F A). What did my broken bones feel like for them? How their hearts must break when they see me become more and more disabled every single day. What do they feel when they see me struggle to walk, even with a walker? As a parent myself, I am gutted when I think about how they must experience my F A struggles. So I decided to write an open letter to them.