Watching Their Dance: A Memoir

Would you marry the man you adored if you knew he had a chance of inheriting one of the cruelest diseases on earth?
Therese Crutcher is not a risk taker. Through meticulous planning, she eliminates as much uncertainty from her life as she can. Yet during her senior year of college, blithely planning to marry her beloved John Marin, she is suddenly thrown into turmoil when John's sisters announce they finally know what killed their mother, Huntington's disease; an inherited neurological disease. John and his three older sisters have a fifty-percent chance of inheriting HD, which slowly kills the brain cells that affect movement and cognition. There is still no treatment or cure.
John says, "You never know what will happen in life," but his at-risk status shakes Therese to the core. How can she live with such uncertainty? Eventually, Therese takes the biggest gamble of her life and marries the man she loves.
When she observes symptoms in Lora, the oldest sister, Therese fears that Huntington's has found her. And when Marcia, the gentle middle sister, is diagnosed with the disease, Therese-with two small children, a career, and a husband now in the prime age range to show symptoms-struggles against the demons that feed her fear. When Marcia's symptoms worsen, John moves her nearby, and Therese lovingly oversees her care. Several years later, Cindy, the youngest, most athletic sister, also develops Huntington's.
Thus unfolds a life filled with unpredictability, tough choices, and pain, and yet full of love, good times, and great joy. Therese comes to realize that the uncertainty she willingly took on has opened her heart to love more deeply; that acknowledging her world could change overnight has made her life richer. Life is just too precious to waste a moment on small stuff. And though John's sisters leave this world far too soon, the Marin siblings, she realizes, have taught her about embracing life, forgiveness, and unconditional love.