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Molly Abraham, Detroit News 112104
Richard Cohen, with his 14,,
Meredith. Vieira; children, Gabe,
Lily and Ben; and his parents
Tke Fevre:
Accented with the flavors of the Caribbean and the Mediterranean.
Entrees range from steaks and creamy pasta to grilled scallops and fresh fish.
be done to keep going. Denial encour-
ages anyone to test perceived limits and, _-
as a consequence, to postpone conces-
sions.
"There is nothing wrong with that.
MS lasts a lifetime, and I have learned
that self-knowledge and coping arrive in
their own time."
The partial blindness that occurred
within a few years of Cohen's diagnosis
never went away, and he is now legally
blind. The disease sometimes affects his
voice. When under stress, his limp
becomes more pronounced, and the
weakness in his right hand increases.
("And it doesn't have to be very much
stress to affect someone with MS," he
said.) Two bouts of colon cancer did
nothing to alleviate his stress.
"My advice to myself is simple. Run
with MS, not away from it," he writes.
"That race with existing illness cannot
be won. See the truth. We move forward
with grace when the wind is at our
backs."
The Next Generation
Cohen and Vieira, who married in
1986, live in suburban New York with
their three children: Ben, nearly 16;
Gabe, 14; and Lily, 12. Although Vieira
did not convert to Judaism, the children
are raised Jewish.
Although they don't belong to a syna-
gogue, the family has a Passover seder
and celebrates the High Holidays, and
the children are frequent guests at syna-
gogues.
"I have a very strong feeling about
knowing who we are, and, culturally, the
kids are very Jewish," Cohen said. "You
don't have to sit in a synagogue to know
who you are."
Cohen's father, a physician in
Hartford, Conn., was diagnosed with
MS when he tried to enlist in the U.S.
Army in World War II. However, several
decades passed before the disease posed
any great inconvenience. "The old
man," as Cohen refers to him, went
back to school and practiced medicine
well into his son's adulthood.
Paternal grandmother Celia Shedroff
Cohen owned and operated a women's
clothing store in Schenectady, N.Y.
Undiagnosed until her final days, MS
put her in a wheelchair and, eventually;
in a nursing home.
"I don't think there's much question
that MS has a genetic component,"
Cohen told the Jewish News.
"MS might be a combination of
genes," he said. "Also, it might be a
genetic predisposition that you inherit,
rather than the disease itself."
Cohen is involved in a research project
through Harvard University searching
for a genome for MS.
He does occasionally worry that his
children may one day hear the same
frightening diagnosis as their father,
grandfather and great-grandmother.
However, if there's one thing the disease
taught him, it's to live day by day.
Cohen writes that his children have
absorbed his attitudes, from denial to
coping.
He quotes his son Ben: "You learn to
cope with it. You just do. You just can't
keep thinking about staff."
Cohen, who has won three Emmy
Awards and now lectures at Columbia
University, said he wishes his children
could have known him before he
became ill. However, he does not regret
the role he now plays in their lives.
"I have a great family," he said. "I've
had a great career. I've gone places other
people don't get to go, done things other
people don't get to do. "
In Blindsidec4 Cohen writes that "a
resilient man returns each night to my
house."
"This man knows his body will not
halt the evolution downward, but he is
determined. ...This man cannot win,
but he knows he cannot lose until the
journey is clone." E]
Richard Cohen speaks 8 p.m. Sunday,
Nov. 14, at the Jewish Community
Center in West Bloomfield. $10 for
JCC members; $12 for nonmembers.
(248) 432-5577.
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