Recently I found out a friend of mine lost their mother to Lou Gehrig's disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). She died within a year of diagnosis, and there is no cure. The best hope is a drug that will extend the time where quality of life is still high by a few months.

ALS [if you're interested in the breakdown of the language - "a" = no, "myo" = muscle, "trophic" = nourishment, "lateral" refers to the location of the deterioration, and "sclerosis"  = hardening, i.e., scar tissue] is a disease of the nervous system. In a fully functioning system, the brain sends messages down the spinal cord. When the messages have reached the place where they branch out into the body, they follow long nerves until the message has reached the muscle. At this junction, there is a motor neuron that transmits the message into the muscle. In Lou Gehrig's disease, this motor neuron degenerates. Because the neuron is not sending full messages to the muscles, the muscles begin to weaken until there is almost nothing left. There are voluntary and involuntary muscles in the human body, and ALS only affects the voluntary ones - moving your arms, walking, breathing. Your stomach and heart will still continue to function.
Muscle weakness and twitching are the first symptoms to be seen. They can worsen and speech may be impaired too, but it is impossible to accurately diagnose ALS without specific tests done by a physician. Most of the time ALS strikes in people ages 40 - 70, but it can occur in younger people as well. Only 10% of cases have genetic links; the rest are sporadic and there is no known cause. Expected lifespan is 2-3 years, but can be much longer or much shorter.

There are many days of the year to give thanks, not just one.