When Ruth Cotton walked out of her neurologist's office in 1997 with a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, her life changed irrevocably. At the peak of her career and with three children still at home, all she could think of were the uncertainties - especially whether she'd become wheelchair-bound. But Ruth continued her full, active life and it wasn't until her retirement that multiple sclerosis exacted its greatest toll, slowly taking her balance and mobility. In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic confined Ruth indoors, news came that her husband's cancer, melanoma, diagnosed years before, was accelerating. Overwhelmed by a sense of life's fragility, Ruth turned to writing to make sense of it all. As she gives close attention to her immediate environment, a more mindful way of being and thinking unfolds. A Fragile Hold reveals with warmth and unflinching honesty the daily, intimate scenes of a life with multiple sclerosis.
