Lyn Ryan was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2013. Three years later, she and her husband settled on the Sunshine Coast, where she discovered the joy of singing in a local Parkinson’s choir. One afternoon, the choir’s teacher set the group a challenge: to write an original song.
When Lyn sat down to try, the words poured out so effortlessly that within just a couple of hours she had written her first poem. It was a surprise, and a gift. Since then, Lyn has gone on to write around 50 poems-many about her journey with Parkinson’s and breast cancer, but also tender verses for her grandchildren, especially to celebrate their milestone birthdays. Writing has become a way for her to reflect, to connect, and to create something lasting for the people she loves. She also makes these amazing artworks:
Can you find these people in Lyn's poem?
Muhammad Ali, Neil Diamond, Alan Alda, Michael J Fox, Billy Connolly, Ozzy Osbourne, Linda Ronstadt, John Cornell, Andy Thomas and Allan Border.
Here is our story about to be told
Of people affected young and old
We love and we laugh, we sing and we dance
We have dreams of a second chance
With nothing new coming to fruition
Teachers Edwina and Dave are giving us tuition
Teaching us music to sing on the stages
Relaying our plight across the ages
We are Survivors, no we are Heroes
We are not drunk, we are Parkies Sopranos
We are friends found in unfortunate times
But will always be there for each other’s confines
We have stars among our troupe
And now it’s time to regroup
We float like a butterfly, sting like a bee
Know a Hot August Night’s debris
And Hawkeye at an army camp stay
Can be like a Back to the Future day
And with Billy along for the ride
We try to take everything in our stride
And now Ozzy has joined the crew
How many more will join the queue
As we search for answers together
That’ll be the Day we see sunny weather
And who can forget Strop
He can no longer humour us on the hop
We have another recent addition
An Aussie Astronaut is his position
And yet another the other day
A left-handed batsman, you could say
We tremor, we dribble
We whisper, we freeze
We’ll work together
to fight this disease
But it’s our brain that has been affected
The loss of dopamine has been detected
We have a vision one day of a cure
We’ll try anything to survive this detour
To stay upright and not to trip
And do our best to beat its grip
We limp, we hobble, we unbalance, we swing
But we stay strong doing the Parkies Sing Thing
