Author Archives: Halsey Blocher

Ice cream wasn’t always one of my favorite treats. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it, but it wasn’t one of my go-tos when I wanted something cold or sweet. I think SMA is part of…

Nearly anyone that knows me knows that pasta has been my lifelong favorite food. We stock a variety of shapes and flavors in the pantry so I always have different options to choose from. Among them are single serving, microwaveable…

When I was little, SMA wasn’t widely known or understood. Its rarity meant that few people had heard of it unless they were confronted with it. Families like mine carried much of the responsibility of sharing…

For many years, there was a quote hanging in our local zoo, but I no longer remember if it was by Edmund Burke, who (rightly or wrongly) is credited as saying, “Nobody…

One night, I was woken by a beeping noise. That’s not altogether unusual, because alarms from my medical equipment occasionally sound throughout the night. I’m so accustomed to it that my mind sometimes incorporates the sound into my dreams…

Have you ever solved the world’s problems? I have. Well, sort of. That’s what we say we’re doing when Mom and I get together for coffee with our friend Connie Chandler, a fellow SMA…

Today is my 28th birthday! As anyone in the SMA community knows, age is not a privilege guaranteed to those of us living with the disease, so every birthday — and every individual day —…

I’ve long dreamed of visiting the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta to see their famed whale sharks. Something about the gigantic yet peaceful sea creatures tugs at my soul in a way that made me crave seeing them…

It surprised me to open my email one night to find a message from my colleague Michael Morale. Well, it wasn’t really from Michael. It was from his Otter, a virtual assistant that had attended a company meeting…