Todd Neva's Blog

October 19, 2025, by Kristin Neva

“What do you think about having one thimbleberry design on one side of a mug and a different one on the other?” I asked my husband, Todd.

We’d been brainstorming ideas for some print-on-demand items that I might try selling. Todd has had a fixed income ever since he was disabled due to ALS 12 years ago. He needs full-time care and it doesn’t make financial sense for me to work while paying someone else to take care of him, so I try to find ways to earn a little ...

September 2, 2025, by Kristin Neva

Last Sunday, on the morning of our 22nd wedding anniversary, as I was getting my husband, Todd, out of bed, he asked if I’d heard the song “To Build a Home.” I hadn’t.

“Alexa, play ‘To Build a Home’ by the Cinematic Orchestra and Patrick Watson,” Todd said. Then his Echo Show device began playing the song, with Watson on the piano.

“I’ve been listening to this when I can’t sleep,” he continued, “and I’ve been thinking about our life.”

After the piano introducti...

September 2, 2024, by Kristin Neva

My daughter, Sara, is beginning her freshman year at a university a couple hours from us, and last Saturday was her day to move into the dorms.

I had planned to help her move, so weeks ago I lined up a daytime caregiver for my husband, Todd, who has ALS and is paralyzed. However, on the Wednesday before the big day, the caregiver let me know that she was feeling congested. Her symptoms had started a few days earlier, so there was a chance she’d be better by Sat...

August 12, 2024, by Kristin Neva

“I really want to go to your performance,” my husband, Todd, told our daughter, Sara, who was starting a weeklong intensive with Eisenhower Dance Detroit that will culminate in a performance Saturday. “It’s just too hard to get out, and I don’t want to sit in the theater with my ventilator.”

Sara nodded, unsurprised, as her father hasn’t attended any of her performances for the past couple years because of his ALS, especially after his neck became too weak to com...

June 10, 2024, by Kristin Neva

Last January, my sister-in-law asked what our plans were for my daughter Sara’s high school graduation. She wondered if she, my mother-in-law, and my husband’s siblings should plan to come for the commencement ceremony or a graduation party some other weekend.

My husband Todd’s breathing is so compromised due to ALS that I didn’t feel like I could make plans four months out. It’s been touch- and-go at times, especially over the last couple years, but she needed to ...

August 28, 2023, by Kristin Neva

One evening last week after I’d finished cooking dinner, I grew concerned. My almost 14-year-old son had gone out to ride his dirt bike on an off-road vehicle (ORV) trail that ran next to our property. He’d planned to go only to a nature area a couple miles away and back.

“Don’t you think he should be home by now?” I asked my husband, Todd.

“I would think he should be home within 10 minutes,” Todd said.

Not more than a minute later, my phone rang.

“I hit a bird,”...

June 12, 2023, by Kristin Neva

As I fed my husband, Todd, his morning breakfast, a charm of yellow finches caught our attention, flitting to and from a mountain ash outside our dining room window. That old tree has brought many moments of joy that are sweet reprieve from the daily challenges of life with ALS.

The tree is now deteriorating, with a rotted trunk and sparse leaves, but every spring it blossoms clusters of white flowers. It doesn’t turn yellow in autumn like a proper mountain ash, bu...

January 5, 2023, by Kristin Neva

This past weekend, my husband, Todd, coached our son, Isaac, in making and installing a shelf in our daughter’s bedroom. It was a corner shelf with an obtuse angle, so they had to measure the angle, cut the boards to fit, and join the two halves of the shelf together.

My daughter and I were pleased with how it turned out. I’m often impressed by what the two of them can accomplish together, ...

September 6, 2022, by Kristin Neva

My husband, Todd, has ALS and is paralyzed, so not only do I cook all the meals, but I also feed him. His meals are often rushed or delayed because I’m running our daughter, Sara, to dance practice or wherever else a busy 16-year-old needs to go. There are times when it’s difficult to leave Todd at home alone, such as when I need to clear his lungs or he needs to use the bathroom, so we were looking forward to Sara getting her driver’s license.

Sara started the...

July 20, 2022, by Kristin Neva

One evening, I took my daily walk in the Nara Nature Park in Houghton, Michigan. As I made my way around a network of wooden boardwalks, through a marsh, and alongside a riverbank and lakeshore, I listened to a symphony of birds.

I saw a few couples walking, and that stung a little because I can’t go on walks with my husband, Todd. He has ALS and is paralyzed, so he stays at home on his computer. Even though the park has a few barrier-free paths, Todd’s neck is alm...