Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/115080
Act I: Where there���s a will ��� It���s the first night of the class that will wrap up Jennifer Digmann���s master���s program at Central Michigan University. She and husband, Dan Digmann, an editor at the university, scarf down a quick dinner of Hot Pockets. They���ve got a few minutes before it���s time to load up the van and get to class. ���Thank you, sugar,��� she whispers as he helps her into her coat. For more than five years, this has been a well-trodden path. For every class Jennifer has taken, the couple has undertaken at least three ���run-throughs��� before the semester begins in order to ensure she���ll be able to enter the buildings, access the classrooms and get to the bathrooms. Jennifer has secondary-progressive multiple sclerosis and cannot walk ��� that���s one way that makes the 38-year-old different than the average college student. Her husband, Dan, not only shares her name, but also her disease (his form of MS is relapsing-remitting) ��� that���s another way that makes theirs different from the average love story. But if all you see are the differences, you���ll miss the best part. An MS romance The January wind blows cold against Jennifer���s cheeks outside Powers Hall as nervousness begins to settle into her bones. ���History is not my forte,��� she says, bracing herself for the work ahead in her historiography course. Dan, always a step ahead, opens the door for her. Jennifer���s got a bold, radiant smile, but her voice falters at times ��� a side effect of the MS. Every research paper she has written has been typed out with the one finger she can most control. ���When I graduated from college, I graduated with a degree in sociology,��� she says. ���Six months after I graduated, I was diagnosed with MS, so my whole world turned upside down. I had never forgotten I wanted to go to grad school.��� A rotating cadre of caregivers started working at the house each year, allowing Jennifer to create a life for herself within the home, while Dan earns a living at CMU. The caregivers are blessings, but they don���t come without some challenges. Jennifer met Dan through a special MS outreach program called ���Finding Your Buried Treasure.��� The couple now reflects on the hidden significance of that title to their relationship. They were married in 2005. That also goes for Jennifer���s No. 1 caregiver, her husband. Within a year, Jennifer had her sights set on returning to the classroom, to a master���s program in humanities. And now she is mere months from graduation. ���I���m still learning,��� says Dan. ���You have to know when to step in and know when to back off. When you see that she���s struggling, your tendency is to step in, but when you do that, you���re saying, ���You can���t do this.������ ���This is something I wanted so badly, and then I married someone who made that happen,��� she says. ���I have to do this to prove to myself that MS didn���t keep me from fulfilling my dreams.��� Bumps in the road When the Digmanns began their life together, there was a huge learning curve ahead. It was a couple of years before they became brave enough to try to transfer Jennifer from her chair to the couch so they could enjoy the simple pleasure of falling asleep in each other���s arms while watching TV. centralight spring ���13 21