How does a person with Huntington’s disease act and look? 

Chris Furbee, a man in Northern California who has Huntington’s, has been making a film about his mother Rosemary Shockey, who died of HD at the age of 59 in 2000. In late 2006 and early 2007, in the midst of struggling with HD, Chris took a break from his work and produced a short film on Rosemary exclusively for this website.

As Chris states on his own website, “Rosemary was a very caring and giving person who loved nature and all living creatures. The only things she hated were intolerance and ignorance. She owned and operated an arts and crafts store, The Pioneer, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. She made and sold through her store leather goods such as purses, belts, wallets, etc.” (Click here to visit Chris’s site.)

Rosemary was also a talented artist who continued to paint despite having involuntary movements, a main symptom of HD, that were very pronounced. Her father and a sister also died of HD.

Chris became an adult as his mother descended into the hell of HD and realized the same fate could befall him. At age 18 he ran away and stayed on the road for five years. He finally got his life back on track and faced reality. In 1996, at the age of 30, he was tested for HD. The results came back positive.

Chris threw himself into making the film about his mom. The film is also about his own journey with HD. The story follows him from his decision to return home in 1995 to West Virginia to visit his mom for two months and determine whether she could still live alone.

Chris has sought to empower himself by speaking to medical students at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University about his condition. “I decided that I had to live a positive life and educate as many people [as possible about] HD,” Chris states on his site.

In November 2006 The New York Times published an article about Chris’s film project, bringing him national attention. (Click here to read the article.)

To watch the film Chris made for HDSA-San Diego, please click on the video player below.