Did Grief Give Him Parkinson’s? - Issue 21: Information
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Jack Gernsheimer met my car at the bottom of the lane. He looked good this summery Sunday, rested and tan. The logo on his T-shirt was one he and his brother designed years ago, featuring the name of the town they grew up in, which at the time was celebrating its 150th birthday: “Bernville, Pennsylvania, 1851-2001.” This is a beautiful part of the state, lush green farms in rolling countryside, the Blue Mountains vague in the distance. It’s Updike country; the town of Shillington memorialized in John Updike’s early short stories is less than half an hour away. I had driven up to spend time with Jack, who has Parkinson’s disease, and his twin brother Jeff, who does not. Because they are identical twins with identical genomes, it may appear to be a mystery that only Jack is sick. Yet (...)