Michael J. Fox covers AARP Magazine, which kind of blows my mind. He’s old enough to cover AARP and that reminds me to save more for retirement. Fox is 55 now and he’s been the public face of Parkinson’s since he went public with his diagnosis in 1998. He also has his own nonprofit, the The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which funds Parkinson’s research. In his interview with AARP he talks about Parkinson’s and I came away feeling like I understood the condition a bit more. He said that he finds his limitations funny and told a story about how he doesn’t realize he has symptoms until after he’s feeling the consequences of them. He also talked about feeling overwhelmed while meeting Muhammad Ali, who passed away last year at 74, and how people look at him (Michael) with “dread.” It was a good interview.

He’s still surprised by his symptoms
“The truth is that on most days, there comes a point where I literally can’t stop laughing at my own symptoms.

“Just the other morning I come into the kitchen. I pour a cup – a little trouble there. Then I put both hands around the cup. She’s watching. ‘Can I get that for you, dear?’ ‘Nah, I got it!’

“Then I begin this trek across the kitchen. It starts off bad. Only gets worse. Hot java’s sloshing onto my hands, onto the floor.”

He only has pain in his feet
“The only real pain I get is in my feet, which sometimes shuffle and curl up in cramps when I’m sleeping.

“Which is why I keep a very stiff pair of shoes on the floor next to my bed.”

On how people look at him with dread
“It was easy for me to tune in to the way other people were looking into my eyes and seeing their own fear reflected back.

“I’d assure them that ‘I’m doing great’ – because I was.

“After a while, the disconnect between the way I felt and the dread people were projecting just seemed, you know, funny.

He was overwhelmed meeting Muhammad Ali
“In this raspy, paper-thin voice, he said, ‘Aahhhhh … Michael, now that you’re in it, we’ll win this fight.’

“What could I say? Sitting there alone listening to Muhammad Ali, this giant – I was welling up, almost openly weeping.”

[From AARP Magazine via Daily Mail]

I have someone close to me with Parkinson’s and he tries to do things that seem unsafe for him like climb ladders or help you carry luggage up the stairs. Hearing Fox explain it like that, like it’s hard to realize that you can’t do something until you try it, helps me understand it a little. I have no idea what that’s like and from the outside it can make you frustrated on the other person’s behalf. It also must help to have a sense of humor about it. As The Daily Mail points out, Fox has been married to Tracy Pollan, 56, since 1988 and they have four children together: son Sam, 27, twin daughters Aquinnah and Schuyler, 22, and daughter Esmé, 15. It sounds like he’s doing well and we just saw him present at The Oscars. He was also on The Good Wife up until it wrapped last year.

photos credit: AARP and FameFlynet