The Private Battle of Robert Borsellino
by Stephen M. Delgado

One can hardly watch a newscast without hearing about some battle being fought in some part of the world, but there’s also another kind of battle being fought by more than 30,000 Americans who have ALS.

A journalist in Des Moines, Iowa, is engaged in such a battle. Meet Robert Borsellino, a columnist for the Des Moines Register. Although his body has been weakened by the disease, his pen still has the might of a howitzer.

Borsellino grew up in a tough Bronx, N.Y., neighborhood in the 1950s and 60s. He graduated from Bronx Community College and the State University of New York at New Paltz.

Borsellino, 56, is married to Rekha Basu, who is also a columnist for the Des Moines Register. They have two sons, Raj, 19, and Romen, 16.

Borsellino has a resume rich in newspaper background, peppered with some years in radio and television. His newspaper experience includes stints with Newsday, the Albany Times Union, the Kingston Daily Freeman, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Des Moines Register.

The Register hired Borsellino in 1994 as the metro editor, and he became a columnist in 1998. He’s written scores of articles about everything from homeless youth to his meeting with Ronald Reagan.


No matter what or whom he writes about, his common denominator is putting a human face on his subject and taking the reader inside the person. Borsellino is currently working part-time for the Register.

Declaration of War

In the autumn of 2004, Borsellino’s world completely changed, when a dreaded disease declared war on his body. A few months later an article he wrote would become profoundly personal. He’d take the reader inside Rob Borsellino.

The article was titled, “I Can Kick the Denial, Not the Disease.” It ran in the Des Moines Register Feb. 23, 2005, and is one of the collection of articles penned by Borsellino in his recent book So I’m Talking to This Guy… (Des Moines Register).

“I was slurring my words; I was tired, and I felt weak,” Borsellino wrote. “Finally, I went to see a doctor,” he recalled. “But, the doctor ran some tests and was spooked by what he saw. He sent me to a second doctor — a nerve specialist.

“That guy ran more tests and at the end of the session, he’s telling me I have some fatal, incurable, exotic-sounding disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also called Lou Gehrig’s disease. Then he told me that most people only live a few years with this disease.”

What’s more, Borsellino recounts seeing several other doctors around the country and being told the same thing. He said that each time he heard it, he was in denial. The recurring thoughts that he wouldn’t be there for his sons’ weddings, and that he wouldn’t see his grandchildren, kept haunting him.

Fighting Back

Twelve-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous stress to their members the idea of living “one day at a time.” When a person’s future is in a precarious position because of a disease, one day at a time may be the best way to cope.

If a good attitude is vital in coping with a catastrophic disease, Borsellino has one. He isn’t going to quit or do a gloomy Gus act. His tough upbringing tempered his psyche.

“It has been tough, but my attitude is to keep having fun as long as we can.”

Borsellino is still walking, but not talking. He is attending MDA clinic, is receiving assistance from the MDA loan closet, and a network of friends helps every day with various tasks, such as “helping me to dress and make breakfast. My son, Raj, has taken the semester off from college to be at home to help me, too.”

In all, Borsellino’s gift of empathy is matched by his sense of humor. In light of what he’s going through, he found something to smile about and to bring a smile to us when he was trying to think of a positive angle.

“I’m toying with the name. At least it’s called Lou Gehrig’s disease and not Steinbrenner Syndrome or Dizzy Dean Disorder.”

For a Yankee fan who grew up in the Bronx, it’s an ironic connection to one of the greatest Yankee players ever.

Rob Borsellino has agreed to contribute an article to a future issue of the MDA/ALS Newsmagazine. Borsellino has been named the recipient MDA’s 2006 Personal Achievement Award for Iowa.