00:08after his mother passes away man finds this Huntington's disease is a condition caused by
00:14a mutated gene in a person's DNA it causes brain cells to die and leads to impaired movement changes
00:21in personality and other mental disturbances it's hereditary and occurs in approximately
00:25four out of 15 people there's no cure and the condition worsens over time it can occur in men
00:31or women and children born to a parent with Huntington's have a 50% chance of carrying the
00:36disorder but those who do can carry the gene for years without ever developing a symptom in fact
00:42the typical onset of Huntington's is between the ages of 30 and 50 one injured user named Justin
00:47has a history of the disease in his family according to Justin his grandfather suffered
00:51from Huntington's but with few resources available he quote self-medicated his anger at losing his
00:57mind by drinking every day he got more violent and angry as his disease progressed Justin's mother
01:03Cheryl was just a young child when her father began to decline so it was no surprise when
01:08several decades later just after giving birth to him Justin's mother began to exhibit early
01:13signs of the disease the diagnosis doomed Justin to the same fate of growing up with a terminally
01:18ill parent his mother's diagnosis meant that he would miss out on the opportunity to know his
01:22mother as she truly was instead he would only know her through the lens of a disease that had
01:27turned her mind against itself Cheryl passed away in 2014 after a lengthy battle with Huntington's
01:32the death had a major impact on Justin who committed to finding out more about the woman who had done
01:38her best to raise him Justin came across a virtual time capsule of tiny treasures largely from his
01:43mother's adolescence allowing him to get to know a side of her he never had the large brown envelope had
01:49the
01:49words Cheryl's keepsakes scrolled across the top and its contents would change the way he viewed his
01:54relationship with his mother inside he found photographs postcards and even an early report card among the
02:00pictures was a black and white photograph of his grandmother as a glamorous young woman
02:03it was a picture Justin had never seen and he felt like he was staring into the past other photos
02:08included pictures of
02:09Cheryl in her senior class photo another shows her in a white dress and matching corsage at her junior
02:14prom suddenly Justin was seeing his mother as more than the victim of a horrible illness beside her at
02:20the prom was a young man she used to date Justin explains the importance of the photo saying quote she
02:24took a lot of crap for dating him he was Japanese and there was still anti Japanese sentiment from my
02:29grandparents generation also in the envelope Justin found his mother's own handwritten account of a
02:35particularly horrific childhood experience we'll tell you about that in just a second but first why
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02:45take a
02:46moment to leave us alike among the items in the envelope was a story written by Cheryl in the third
02:51grade when she was no more than 10 the story entitled my favorite pet tells the tale of a playful
02:56little pooch named skipper who according to the story was black with orange spots in the touching
03:01tale Cheryl describes her beloved dog saying quote in spring he would jump over baby trees and turn
03:07somersaults in winter he would run and nosedive first into the snow tragically it was on one such
03:12winter day that Cheryl would lose her tiny companion forever she recounts the story this way the fog was
03:18so thick that you could only see a few feet skipper was lying in the road a car came and
03:23ran over his
03:23leg and broke it he couldn't came up just then another car came and ran over his head we had
03:28to shoot him
03:29to put him out of his miseries needless to say the incident had a long-lasting impact on her during
03:33a time when she was already watching her father Justin's grandfather fight his own battle against
03:38Huntington's after exploring the contents of the envelope which also included postcards from her
03:43sister and gifts she'd given to her as a child Justin felt closer to his mother than ever before but
03:49he
03:49expresses his lingering sadness saying I really wish I'd gotten to know her before she started getting
03:54sick but seeing this part of her life has at least let me see a bit of the person she
03:58was have you
03:59or a loved one been affected by Huntington's disease let us know in the comments below
