Making Precious Memories

The family just returned from the beautiful and wonderful family vacation spot Seacrest Beach to spend some much needed close time together.

The good: Warm dry weather. Safe travel to and from. Beautiful water bouncing off pristine sandy beaches. Family time. Plenty of activities including pontooning to Shell Island where our grandson Hayes fed fish from his hands, drove the boat, and had a lot of laughs. Personally, I kayaked at Camp Helen. We preferred the public access beach with far fewer people and umbrellas.

The not so good: Most visitors not wearing masks despite the Covid-19 hotspot. Price gouging at the local grocery stores. Talks about current politics. The long drive home.

All in all: Family joy, nature unique to the Emerald Coast, and fun activities vastly outweighed the sum negative.

For Hayes’ DMD, the monster may limit, even pain, him in the future. However, memories like the ones we plentifully made last week hopefully will help provide our adorable and smart grandson with a fountain of inner joy to help him overcome any perceived or real disqualifications he may experience down the road.

Come on DMD researchers, please find mitigating treatments soon so we will not have to necessarily rely only on memory making for these young boys. Let’s end Duchenne.

Kindly yours,

Papa in Tennessee