In living with ALS, I’m OK and not OK

In living with ALS, I’m OK and not OK

In the opening stanza of “For When People Ask,” poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer writes: “I want a word that means okay and not okay, more than that: a word that means devastated and stunned with joy. I want the word that says I feel it all all at once.” Wahtola Trommer’s poem resonates with me, because when I run into someone I know, they often ask, “How are you?” Or a store clerk whom I don’t even know offers the mindless pleasantry, but it’s st…