Leaving her mark
Battling ALS, Dr. Faye Magneson maintains her spirit while painting, raising funds


JIM MEENAN
Tribune Staff Writer

With the black pastel pressed between her thumb and index finger, Dr. Faye Magneson gently painted a narrow tree with short, quick strokes.

Her smile is full of life as her idea is transported from her mind through her fingers to the page.

The physician has trouble walking. She can't talk, and she has some difficulty breathing. But the pleasant smile across her face is true to her core.


Faye Magneson, of Granger, continues to live life as best she can.

Now well into her fourth year with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Faye wrote, "God could not have created a worse disease."

But at this moment at Studio Arts Center in South Bend, one would have to watch closely to see that she's the one battling ALS in the class of six or so students.

The look in her eyes is as bright as a yellow pastel, her face full of expression.

"It's a new focus," Faye wrote on white note pad during a break in painting. "I love sports, skiing, tennis, golf, but I had to find a different avenue as I had to let all that go."

Invited by her yoga instructor to take the pastel class, she approached her friend Elsie Nemeth about joining her. They both joked they could only draw stick figures when they started.

That was in September 2005.

"We do it for fun and enjoyment," said Nemeth at a recent Friday class. "We took the attitude, let's try it."

And it's working.

"We work strictly in landscapes," art teacher Catherine McCormick said. "She always chooses a subject matter that's pretty challenging."

But Nemeth notes that is Faye.

"Faye, she just meets challenges head on," Nemeth said.

Nemeth's longtime doctor and friend came to her aid two years ago when she lost her husband. She helped her get a dog, got her involved with some sporting activities, helped her with her new life.

She just reaches out and touches your life, Nemeth said. "She's been a blessing for me.

"She helps you realize where you are and brings it out of you."

So it is with the pastels. The challenge is her own this time.

She perseveres, Nemeth said, "and does it with a positive attitude and enthusiasm.

"You challenge yourself, and your abilities come out," Nemeth added. "We come here. We smile. We joke. We laugh."

But coping with ALS is full of uncertainty.

"The disease progresses, and you never know what will be affected next," Faye wrote in an earlier interview conducted by e-mail.

"To have to give up my career, to have to write whatever I want to say, to not be able to take a walk with my family, all are major aspects that have changed my life and forced me to look at other things that I could pursue."

But Faye has found she can continue to grow. The accomplished doctor and teacher, who could get only a C in high school art, is doing good work, McCormick said.

"Drawing was something foreign to me and way out of my comfort zone," Faye said, "but I said, 'why not?' And I have loved it ever since."

Magneson was on hand for a May 21 luncheon by Friends for Faye, a group that is on the verge of having raised $1 million locally for ALS research.

"She was great," Jody Freid, Faye's friend and the event organizer, said. Many people stopped by to tell stories of how she helped them as a doctor, Freid said, and she conversed, writing notes. At the end, Freid said, "she was able to give hugs" to people as they left.

"The South Bend community has been outstanding in support of finding a cure for ALS," Faye said. "The more individuals hear about ALS and the devastating effects it has on a person, the more they realize that treatment and a cure must be found.

"To be totally paralyzed and have total mental capacity is hard to even imagine, and this is exactly how ALS is."

It's not easy, but Faye still gets around.

She has traveled to Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Italy over the past two years.

She recently returned from her daughter's graduation from Georgetown University.

And she has continued to serve as the director of the first- and second-year medicine course at Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend, winning Teacher of the Year for 2007, enjoying greatly the interaction with faculty and students.

She has taken up bridge, calling it stimulating and enjoyable. She has even tried knitting. And she is part of a book club and Bible study "with wonderful and supportive friends."

Life may not be all that it used to be, "but I have had to find enjoyment in other things, which I would never have thought about in the past," she wrote.

And not working "has given me time to spend with my family and friends, which is time that I truly cherish."

She continued to paint on a recent Friday morning at Studio Arts Center.

Amid all of life's gifts to her family, these paintings could be the best, McCormick said, adding, "They will treasure these paintings for generations."

Faye has helped raise more than $1 million for ALS. She's helped save people's lives. She is a wife, mother, educator.

But it's that spirit that still results in a smile that may be her most important legacy.

"I have a strong faith, wonderful and supportive family and friends, and the realization that this is the only life I have," she wrote, "so I better try and live each day to the best I can."