Gerry Brower

I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 2014 after noticing that my left arm wasn’t swinging when I walked. Of course when I thought back on the preceding years before my “official” diagnosis there were many telltale signs of PD, like my softening voice, loss of smell, anxiety and depression, intermittent left hand tremors, and leg pains at night to mention a few. Even though I wasn’t totally surprised by the diagnosis, I was devastated by the confirmation that I had PD. I had just retired from a 30 year career as a physician in the US Air Force. A year prior to my diagnosis, my wife and I had bought a small ranch in rural Texas and PD was not part of the plan. My plans for working the ranch and continuing my medical practice on a part-time basis had to be scrapped. My feelings of devastation turned to anger. I needed to find an outlet for that anger. Fortunately, that outlet came in the form of a Rock Steady Boxing gym in North Houston.

Not only did punching those heavy bags help provide an outlet for my anger, but it also gave me and my wife the opportunity to meet and socialize with others who had the same symptoms, anger and uncertainties to one degree or another that we did. It was while we belonged to to the North Houston RSB gym that a group of us went to a local paint and sip party. I came away from that get together with a pretty bad painting but it sparked a fascination with painting that I never had before. I came home and ordered a watercolor course for beginners on-line and went to the local art store to stock up on my tools of the trade. I enjoyed painting for several hours a day, and I could turn some soft music on and just get lost in the whole process. We ended up selling our ranch and moving to College Station, Texas where I moved from the North Houston RSB to the College Station RSB. My painting improved and I signed up for a water color class at the local Senior Center. I did that up until COVID hit. After COVID, I seemed to lose all interest in watercolor painting. I tried switching mediums, Acrylic, but I had enjoyed water color so much that I stopped painting all together. I think that was in part due to apathy, and in part due to the difficulty I was having concentrating, due to the PD. I still want to paint in water color and I hope this opportunity will provide the impetus to continue painting once more.