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There’s nothing like a fire alarm to get the limbs moving fast again.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1992, Paul Luscombe ’60 discovered that while promoting his new book, Scoot: Adventures of a Parkinsonian, at the World Congress on Parkinsonism in Washington, D.C. He attended lectures and presentations at the conference and spoke with doctors, researchers, and fellow Parkinson’s patients.
“All the Parkinson’s patients stayed at the same hotel in D.C., and the doctors at a different hotel,” he recalls. “In the middle of the night, there was a fire drill and everyone in the hotel was a Parkinsonian. It was like we were suddenly cured; everyone got out of the building very quickly.”
Scoot is a follow-up to the author’s Pills, Bills, & Parkinson’s Disease: Coping with the On-Off Syndrome.
“I was at the Mayo Clinic, and they kept telling me to scoot this way and scoot that way,” Luscombe explains. “I figured the name would grab attention.”
Sharing his story is something that motivates Luscombe to remain active. Even his neurologist finds herself doling out advice to other patients based on his experiences.
“When I go into a restaurant and order soup, it’s very hard for me to ladle it out with an ordinary spoon,” he says. “I say, ‘Can you put my lobster bisque in a coffee mug or something with a handle?’ It’s made life easier for me. My neurologist tells a lot of her patients to try my method. That feels good.”
Luscombe has loved writing since serving as editor in chief of The Lafayette. He participates in a creative writing group in which participants give feedback on each others’ ongoing manuscripts. He also is correspondent for his class, receiving the Bernard S. Wildstein ’35 Class Correspondent Award in 2007. Maintaining an active life is his key to coping with disability.
“I never really admitted that Parkinson’s is that bad of a disease,” says Luscombe, who has written and published five books through his own PAL Publishing, with a sixth in progress. “It’s just something I live with. You can make it much less uncomfortable if you’re active. Every Parkinsonian should have an activity he or she is committed to. I’m my normal self.”
Luscombe’s proudest publishing achievement came with Play the Game Right, his biography of former Lafayette and NBA coach Butch van Breda Kolff.
“I didn’t know him personally and I said, ‘You know, Butch, I’ve been writing this story about you, and I’d like to expand it to a full-blown biography,’” says Luscombe. “He said, ‘Paul, let’s get started right away.’ I still remember that phone call.”
Luscombe’s other books include Give Dad a Mulligan! and Howard Powerless: the Rise & Fall of the Howard Savings Bank.