Until I Say Good-Bye: My Year of Living with Joy

Moving and inspirational reflections on life from one woman, diagnosed with ALS, making the most of her final days with family and friends.
In June 2011, Susan Spencer-Wendel was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is a disease that systematically destroys nerves that power muscles; Susan, 45 years old and a mother of three, already walks with braces and is losing her ability to speak. Though Susan cannot stop the rapid decline of her body, she refuses to let her life stop before its time. Since her diagnosis, Susan has made sure that every day counts, is more present than ever in her daily life, and ready to share her strength, determination, and spirit.
Susan’s story began growing interest when she published a piece in her local paper about a trip she took to see the Northern Lights following her diagnosis. But this was just the first of many special travels, including a visit to Budapest, where she and her husband spent the first two years of their marriage; a cross-country journey to Northern California to meet her birth mother; and soon a trip to Cyprus, the home country of her deceased birth father, to reunite with the relatives of a man who never knew she existed and return their treasured family Bible.

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