The sailing Parki-Sister

Formentera, March 2023

The first email received from Annika was last year during her stay in A Coruña in Galicia on her sailing boat. She was in the middle of reading a chapter in my book where I talk about my stay in A Coruña, and decided to get in touch with me.

She got diagnosed two years ago, aged only 52. Another vital and active women confronting Parkinson‘s, totally out of the blue. What is this bloody pandemic amongst relatively young people about? That neurodegenerative disease is really getting on our nerves!

Annika and her husband Bernd travel on sailing boats since 2006, participating in regattas and discovering the world in seven seas. I admire them, but especially Annika, who is struggling with loss of balance and stiffness like me. How does she manage under these circumstances? She wrote me again when in Faro, in case I would be in Portugal for a meeting up. But I maintained on the island.

So now, two days ago, they stopped by in Formentera during their travels through the mediterranean and we could finally meet up. They took me sailing from Mitjorn Beach to Cala Sahona on a sunny and windy afternoon and we had enough time to exchange our thoughts, experiences, doubts and all kinds of issues related. She even let me try on her latest discovery of a nerv-cell protecting method, created by a tasmanian medical practitioner and an electronic engineer. A so called Coronet to be put on the scalp, to produce an LED- light therapy. I love it, what a wonderful afternoon! We are totally on the same wavelength, trying out everything, no matter if it works or not. Because you never know how easy the brain can be tricked.

By sunset, I take her along to my yoga group class, where she easily gets on her head stand, after not having practiced for more than 8 months. Probably hard to do so on a shaky surface, right? Meanwhile her husband Bernd walks their deaf dog until sun disappears behind the ocean line.

Beautiful life. All good.