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Twelve Mile Road ALL SALES FINAL NO CHARGES HEALTH Battling ALS Continued from preceding page Equally distressing was the erosion of her personal life. Singing, dancing, dining and dating all went by the board. Since so much socialization revolves around eating, "the disease took away my social life." Particularly hard to ac- cept was the fact that she could no longer tell stories to her grandchildren and make them laugh. "I always talked a lot. That was the hardest part. I always had a lot of stories to tell. So I really turn- ed my anger on what I was," she explains. "Now I have to find a different way of life." • "I worked hard to build up the business to where I am. Now I do not write up as much new business as I take care of renewals," she says. Equally distressing was the erosion of her personal life. Singing, dancing, dining and dating all went by the board. Since so much socialization revolves around eating, "the disease took away my social life." Particularly hard to ac- cept was the fact that she could no longer tell stories to her grandchildren and make _them laugh. "I always talked a lot. That was the hardest part. I always had a lot of stories to tell. So I really turn- ed my anger on what I was," she explains. "Now I have to find a different way of life." "Don't let the doctor destroy you," she advises fellow suf- ferers, quoting Bernard Siegel, whose book on self- healing, Love, Miracles and _Medicine, had become her "bi- ble!' There is as yet no cure for ALS. "But the way it is presented makes a dif- ference," she affirms. "The doctor you have plays the most important part in your healing." At Henry Ford Hospital's ALS Clinic, she finds en- couragement to make the most of every moment. She has also found invaluable the support group organized through ALS of Michigan, a non-profit, volunteer associa- tion which provides informa- tion, counseling and support to ALS patients and their families, as well as money for research. There are seven members in the group to which Mrs. Leiderman belongs. "I feel . like family with them," she says. "We talk very openly and we all feel we help each other." Shared laughter, she has discovered, can be very therapeutic. "I try hard to laugh and I talk on paper with friends as if they can hear me. I joke about having no voice. Not that there isn't pain inside, but the laughing and joking make it easier." Mrs. Leiderman keeps a positive attitude. By joking, Mrs. Leiderman can sometimes ease the hurt of insensitive behavior and painful situations, such as the time a man yelled at her for using a handicapped-parking space. When she didn't answer, he bellowed, "Can't you talk?" Trying to diffuse the pain through laughter doesn't always work. "I try to laugh," she says. "People relate easier to a smile. But this does not mean I do not cry or get angry or have other normal reac- tions. If I need a cry, I cry." "For a while I didn't cry," Mrs. Leiderman remembers. "It made it very hard on my family when I finally broke. They did not know the pain I was experiencing and it made them feel helpless." Her illness, she realizes, "is very hard on friends and rela- tions. They have to be work- ed with too, so as to be able to communicate. A lot of my friends cannot handle it. They stay away and I under- stand and am not angry. We all • have our own limits of what we can tolerate." People in general, she has found, have been kind. Strangers as well as clients and friends have come to her support. "I ran up to a woman in the street (in Rocheater, N.Y., after hearing the diagnosis) and spent the day and night with her and her husband," Mrs. Leiderman recalls. Social isolation is the thing she dreads the most. To keep it at bay she stays as active as she can, continuing favorite pastimes and looking for new ways to improve the quality of her life. A visit to camp which teaches sign language to peo- ple who work with the deaf "put a whole new meaning in my life," she says. "Now my family thinks we should all go to school and learn to sign." Her experiences provide material for her book. Finishing it is important to her in the effort to find a cure for ALS. Until science finds an answer, Carolyn Liederman will think positively and make the most of life. "I think I am lucky. I have not had an easy life but I think that I was gifted with the ability to cope." . ❑ Space Research Program Begins Waltham, Mass. (JTA) — Brandeis University is laun- ching a training program for space shuttle astronauts. The Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory at Brandeis designed a visual-perception experiment to determine how space travel affects vision.