With Courage and Love, Teens Face a Deadly Diagnosis

Summary

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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - As she walked through the door, Sabrina Parker's big hazel eyes flared with surprise and she raised a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. She was a huge fan of the "Twilight" book and movie series, and her friends and family had transformed this greasy garage into a Sweet 16's dream.

Homemade strobe lights illuminated walls decorated like the night sky and plastered with cast posters. An enormous cake, iced to look like the chessboard on one of the book jackets, held 16 blazing candles.

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Extract

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With Courage and Love, Teens Face a Deadly Diagnosis

Sabrina bent in close to the cake and blew, but the flames barely flickered. She straightened up and shook her head. Realizing her distress, Matt Scozzari stepped closer and told her they would do it together. On the count of three, they leaned in and snuffed them out.

In the three months since he'd first asked her out, Matt had noticed small changes in his girlfriend: The shortness of breath, the slurring in her speech, the weight loss. When he'd ask what was going on, Sabrina would just shrug it off as nothing serious.

But she knew differently.

About a month after she started seeing Matt, Sabrina learned that she had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease - the same illness that had ki...

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