“The main recollections I have are that in the beginning things went far better than I could have imagined. Not sure why, but Belle took to me immediately. Couldn’t have been my good looks. I had just had cataract surgery and my eye looked like hell. And my ataxia did not improve my sex appeal . . . this is familial cerebellar ataxia, if you’re curious. Definitely progressive . . . a walker in my future, another year or two, and a wheelchair in three or four. C’est la vie.
