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She trips and falls. The orchard tilts. Crawling insects rush her skin. In a family poisoned by secrets and pesticides, Chrissy Jorgensen’s tremors are more than illness—they are a warning.
At thirty-three, photographer Chrissy sees the world as if it were split in two. In her mind, she captures the historic beauty of her family’s farm; in reality, her cousin, Betty-Sue, placed her in Waypoint Cottage, a secure residential treatment home. Chrissy is labeled unstable and her tremors are dismissed as anxiety. But Chrissy knows something is wrong. She searches for the truth of a poisoned legacy that has haunted her family for generations.
Guided by her slightly out-of-focus mentor, Grandpa Woody, and supported by her psychologist Anna, Chrissy fights to expose a decades-long cover-up while teetering on the edge of her faltering body. Despite physical exhaustion, Chrissy refuses to give up. Tremors, once shameful, become proof of her Parkinson’s diagnosis. Haunted by the fear of failure, betrayal, and loss, she must summon the courage to speak—and save herself and those she loves.
From poisoned orchards to chambers of power, Chrissy transforms from silenced patient into courageous exposer, turning personal suffering into living evidence—and confronting a corruption that spans generations.
Author: Sharon K Comstock
I grew up struggling to read, but learned to see patterns others missed. That perspective became my strength as an art director.
In 2018, Parkinson’s hit—tremors, relentless symptoms, and the shock of discovering three generations before me had faced the same disease.
When I read about drones spraying pesticides, memories flood back—crop dusters from my youth, racing to shut windows, chemicals floating across southwest Michigan’s fruit belt where butterflies once danced. The connection hits like lightning: my trembling body might tell a decades-old story of exposure. These memories shape my writing, which explores the intersection of environment, memory, and health.
I write my first real words about pesticide awareness and vanishing butterflies. My letters are published in the local paper. The Michael J. Fox Foundation contacts me, and suddenly I'm lobbying my congressman, turning generational Parkinson's into the Ending Parkinson's Act.
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Karen Patterson introduces me to the Yes, And…eXercise community, where we join our sherpa, Robert Cochrane, PhD, we learn to dream, share, and become lifelong friends as we write our Hero's Journey(s) together. My StrivePD app records my tremors, they drop to thirty-three minutes daily. Awe-inspiring! Not through medication. Through metaphor.
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Sometimes the thing that shakes you is exactly what teaches you to soar.
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