Ascend logo

Where your work meets your life. See more from Ascend here.

When I was 25, shortly after starting my first full-time job, my mom called with news that changed our lives. Over the past year, she’d developed a number of speech and balance issues that were getting worse. A neurologist had finally given her a definitive diagnosis: early-onset Parkinson’s disease. Back home, she was struggling to take care of herself and my younger brother, who has autism and an intellectual disability. At the time I had no idea what I could do. They lived halfway across the country.