--- title: Taking Care: An Intimate Look at One Family's Life with Parkinson's description: “Taking Care” is a series intimately covering the lives of caregivers and the people they care for. This month’s edition is on Parkinson’s Disease canonical: https://time.com/3593442/parkinsons-disease-caregiving/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T12:00:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-01T09:02:07.652Z article:section: Health og:title: Taking Care: An Intimate Look at One Family's Life with Parkinson's Disease og:description: “Taking Care” is a series covering the lives of caregivers and the people they care for. og:url: https://time.com/3593442/parkinsons-disease-caregiving/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2a6c8f8cf5bf72d/69876978524fc0c628deacc8/abby-kraftowitz-eleanor-parkinsons-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Eleanor Copeman, diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, at her home in Elkins, W.Va., on March 3, 2013. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Taking Care: An Intimate Look at One Family's Life with Parkinson's Disease twitter:description: “Taking Care” is a series covering the lives of caregivers and the people they care for. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf2a6c8f8cf5bf72d/69876978524fc0c628deacc8/abby-kraftowitz-eleanor-parkinsons-disease.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taking Care: An Intimate Look at How Parkinson's Disease Has Changed 1 Family's Life > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=77513bb8-5db4-45d1-9f99-68f6a9a97a7e&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Taking Care: An Intimate Look At One Family's Life With Parkinsons [Watch (HLS stream): Taking Care: An Intimate Look At One Family's Life With Parkinsons](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/tQQDED2R.m3u8) (3:16)  _Published 2014-11-18. In this installation of TIME's series on caregiving, photographer Abby Kraftowitz documents the Copeman family's experience with Parkinson's disease_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 24, 2014 12:00 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Nov 24, 2014 12:00 PM UTC When Eleanor Copeman was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, an incurable condition that gradually attacks the nervous system and impairs even simple movements, family life for the Copemans changed forever. The vibrant, joyful matriarch who loved cooking for her family became dependent on her husband Douglas and daughter Tammy for everything from preparing meals to getting dressed. Now, almost a decade later, Eleanor also has dementia, which strikes [50-80% of people with Parkinson’s](http://www.alz.org/dementia/parkinsons-disease-symptoms.asp). The physical and emotional burdens of caretaking fall to the family.  Eleanor Copeman sweeps the porch outside the family home as her daughter rides her horse toward the house in Elkins, West Virginia, on July 14, 2012. Abby Kraftowitz “Physically, taking care of someone with Parkinson’s is intense—you have to be on 24/7,” Tammy Copeman tells photographer Abby Kraftowitz, who has been documenting the Copemans’ lives since 2012\. “I think it’s just a whole different level of love and loving your family.” Douglas says he chose to take care of Eleanor at home to honor a promise he made to her 51 years ago when they first married. Kraftowitz’s work offers a deep look into life inside one household touched by this chronic disease. [_Abby Kraftowitz_](http://www.abbykraftowitz.com/) _is a photographer based in New York City. You can follow her on Twitter_ [_@abbykraftowitz_](https://twitter.com/abbykraftowitz)_._ ## Transcript Before the disease took hold, now it seems like she was just a totally different person. My mother loved to dance. That was her favorite thing ever, she wanted to be a ballerina. [ LAUGH ] she enjoyed being with her family, she loved to cook, I don't know if she loves cleaning, but she was. Pretty intense about cleaning. [ MUSIC ] My name's Tammy Copeland, my mother's name is Eleanor, and she's in the advanced stages of Parkinson's Disease. My father and I are her primary caretakers. [ MUSIC ] in the beginning of the illness, sometimes you couldn't tell anything was wrong. And then as it progressed, I mean obviously people can tell things are wrong. The symptoms are very strange, they're on and off. So you have good days and bad. But you have dramatically different. Days dramatically different presentations of the illness scramble thinking, muscular rigidity. She's losing strength in her legs. Basically the ability to swallow is on and off. Has this changed my parents relationship at all? I would say [ MUSIC ] Yes, absolutely. The biggest challenge for my dad has been, I guess, switching roles. He has had to become the caretaker and he does, he does cooking, he does dressing. Physically taking care of someone with Parkinson's. Is very intense. You have to be on like 24 / 7. You have to watch her very closely because of falling risks, because of what she's dumping on the floor. She's turning, basically, into a baby with what she does. You know, I think it's just a whole different level of love. Loving your family. Thank God I read the book and expected it. I expected that there's gonna be a time that she doesn't know who I am. So I can be right here beside her, and she can be going, where's Tammy? And I'm like, I'm right here, Mom, I am Tammy. It's difficult and strange because you, again, never know what to expect. She definitely has quite a bit of awareness, which almost makes a devastating, horrific situation even more horrific. Emotionally, the hardest one is when she knows if, if she knows what's [ MUSIC ] Happening to her and when she's afraid of dying and she's basically telling you that. The majority of my time has been dedicated to helping with the care of my mother. I wanted her to have the best care, emotionally I guess i'm so close to my mother, it's hard for me not to be here at this point, this is. The most special thing you can do and, you know, who's more important than your mom. 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