True love story shares how couples' lifestyle defined their approach to dealing with the disease
ARROYO SECO, N.M., June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Author Michelle Terrill Heath and her husband, Andy, earned their living as traveling artists, creating welded bronze jewelry and selling their art at juried shows in many states for over 30 years. They raised and home-schooled two children in the hand-built tiny home they crafted together in a mountain forest near Taos, NM, happily living the rustic adventure without running water, plumbing or electricity for over 24 years. However, in 2005, Andy was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease.
In "Your Wildest Dreams," Terrill Heath explores their family's journey with Parkinson's, from diagnosis to present-day success living with the disease. She writes about risks they took and the failures encountered. Since they didn't have any health insurance, the family attempted to successfully use both alternative and conventional medicine for disease treatment. Since it is also a love story, Terrill Heath documents her life with Andy from their first meeting through the present, and all the exploits they experienced together, such as living in a housetruck while traveling around America, building a 125-foot suspension bridge at an orphanage in India and sailing a 37-foot trimaran sailboat across the Gulf of Mexico through a major storm.
"Parkinson's became another part of our big, messy, wild, loving life," said Terrill Heath. "I'm excited to share this intimate view into our unconventional choices and ways of living, which have included both the exotic and the mundane."
Terrill Heath shares that, when faced with Parkinson's, challenges from her family's past experiences buoyed them up. When their art business began to fail or when the fidelity of their marriage was tested, more approaches emerged. The lessons they learned translated directly when faced with the reality of living with an incurable disease. She encourages the use of a combination of both alternative and conventional medicine and suggests that healing is achieved by living well in the present, not going back to living the same way as pre-diagnosis.
"Your Wildest Dreams" won the second runner up prize in a Hay House Publishers book proposal contest and received a publishing package with Balboa Press, which has made this book possible.
"We believe life gives each person the template they need to be well and live in health, no matter their medical diagnosis," said Terrill Heath. "The prescription for wellness is inherent in your own life experience. I hope readers will discover tools for finding wellness in their own journey."
"Your Wildest Dreams: A Parkinson's Love Story"
By Michelle Terrill Heath
ISBN: 9798765240205 (softcover); 9798765240212 (hardcover); 9798765240199 (electronic)
Available at Balboa Press, Amazon and Barnes & Noble
About the author
Michelle Terrill Heath and her husband, Andy, have earned their living as traveling artists from 1977-2000. They homeschooled their two children while traveling to French Polynesia, Guatemala, Europe, India, and crisscrossing the entire U.S. countless times, all with very little money. Later they adopted a young adult whose entire family had died when he was a teenager. They currently reside near Taos, NM. To learn more and to read the authors blog, please visit http://www.michelleterrillheath.com.
Media Contact
Ziggy Goldfarb, Balboa Press, 4803067065, [email protected]
SOURCE Balboa Press
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