This is the English version of the article that appeared, in Spanish, in Con p de párkinson.
From an email exchange with Randy LeBlanc
Galicia
I was born and raised in the NW corner of Spain, in a beautiful and luscious region called Galicia. Many people have heard about Santiago de Compostela, a major pilgrimage destination, where St James the apostle is believed to be buried in a magnificent cathedral.
Tenerife
The Canary Islands are a Spanish archipelago off the coast of Africa. In November 2020, Paqui Ruiz, who was diagnosed with YOPD a few years earlier, started Con p de párkinson. As a meeting point for Spanish-speaking women with YOPD, it grew from a blog to the website where you’re reading this today.
New York
I was diagnosed with YOPD in New York in 2016, and I came across Con de párkinson shortly after it was created. As I’ve written somewhere else, it was a match made in “Parkinson’s heaven”: women, Spanish-speakers, YOPD.
In 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, I launched a silent auction from Parkinsonic, my own website. I had volunteered to raise $2,500 for #WPC4YOPD, a travel grant fund created specifically for YOPD to be able to experience the World Parkinson Congress in Barcelona. Talking to Paqui one day, she offered a couple of her paintings to be auctioned. One of them didn’t have a title, and she told me to give it a name in honor of my parents. “Let’s call it Solpor” I said, “it means ‘sunset’ in Galician”.
Baton Rouge
Randy Leblanc was working as an engineering in Louisiana when he was diagnosed with YOPD in 2005 a few months before turning 46. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, and they have four children and six grandchildren. He’s very active in the local PD community, where he runs a local support group and the Community Action Committee for the Davis Phinney Foundation, trying to create awareness and work with the local medical community to offer care and exercise programs for PWP's.
In 2021, following links from the WPC website, he came across the auction. His wife bought some note cards with PD art and then they saw Solpor. Having grown up on the South Louisiana coast, Randy spent much of his childhood exploring the marshes, bayous and bays of the area. “This painting just spoke to me like a hot, sultry morning on the bay in our boat with my family waiting for the summer morning haze to burn off”, he wrote. The painting came with “a bonus”, he added, that of being able to lend a supporting hand to his PD “sisters”.
In 2016, Randy and his wife were set to attend WPC in Portland, Oregon. Unfortunately, their house was severely damaged because of flooding in the area. They had to rebuild it entirely, and, wishing to leave their house as simply as possible, added no pictures or art to the walls. They decided to leave it that way until something came along that really "spoke" to them. There are now two pieces of art in their living room. The first is a photograph/painting of a lone cypress tree in the middle of an area lake that they purchased at an auction/fundraiser for PD in New Orleans. The second is Solpor by Paqui Ruiz, with a frame that Randy made in his woodworking shop. He used a beautiful piece of black walnut from his sister-in-law's property in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Baton Rouge - Tenerife - New York
None of us chose to belong to the “PD Club” (seriously, who would?). However, all of us agree on one thing: when you’re a PwP, chances are you’ll meet some amazing people who are fighting on your side. And that’s what helps us face the daily challenge of living with Parkinson’s.
Randy, Paqui and I hope to meet in person in Barcelona in 2023. Until then, Solpor connects us!
PS Click here for the follow-up to this post.
