Last Christmas, Mike Mylenbusch’s sister-in-law got his whole family the same thing. It wasn’t laziness on her part – in fact, Mike thought it was the most touching gift she could have chosen. She gave everyone in his family Team Fox t-shirts. Mike had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease four years ago, at age 36.
“That meant so much more than anything else they could have given that holiday season,” says Mike. “I know they have my back as a family, and I don’t have to do this alone.” Mike, his wife, their two kids and Mike’s sister all wore the shirts for the rest of the day.
Mike is all about family. During our #unselfie campaign, he shared a shot of a special vacation he took with his wife in Sonoma valley. “[I give] so I can have more weekends like this with my bride,” his post reads.
Sharing his #unselfie was also a way of being more open about his Parkinson’s disease on social media, Mike says. He felt motivated to share posts and tweets from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, encouraged by the Foundation’s focus on finding a cure.
They’ve been married for 15 years; Mike was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease four years ago, at 36. He says his wife has been the most supportive person in his life, but that she rejects the term “caregiver.”
“She’s my wife, first and foremost,” says Mike. “As far as my life with her goes, she’s always going to be my wife.”
His younger sons, ages six and nine, don’t really understand their father’s disease, but Mike says his 12-year-old has been as grown-up about it as his parents could have hoped. And unlike most kids his age, for whom the mere presence of a parent can be horribly humiliating, his son tells him that he’s his least embarrassing family member.
“A couple months ago he said he was talking with his mom, he was joking, he said dad’s the only one who doesn’t embarrass me.”
And if a preteen is willing to even wear the same shirt as his dad, that's certainly saying something!