Name: Lee Abramson

City, State: East Lansing, MI

Age: 36

Family:
Father – Paul Abramson (69)
Mothers – Janet Abramson (64)
Sister – Heather Krasna (33)

Hobbies/Interests: Cooking (Eastern, Greek, Chinese, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, Mexican, French, Italian, Indian and Southern style comfort food); web design; Bible study; listening to, analyzing and composing music; watching movies; listening to audio books and podcasts; reading news; playing cards online and drinking expensive whiskey (in moderation)

Date of ALS diagnosis: February, 2005

Life before ALS: I grew up in Michigan and receive a BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.  After college, I moved to Austin, Texas to pursue my musical interests, and for three years played bass in a touring rock band called Punchy.  My main income source was being a technical support analyst at Lotus/IBM, but I was also an entrepreneur, becoming the first ever person to sell pork rinds on the internet, through a site called Porkrind.com.  Porkrind.com is still the number one hit website when you query “pork rinds” in Google or Yahoo.

Life with ALS: With the onset of symptoms, I was no longer employed and gradually started losing mobility, moving from one cane to two canes to a walker to a wheelchair.  The first six months after my diagnosis, I was very withdrawn, spending most of my time listening to music and playing cards on the internet.  Then, however, I started writing music, using computer programs including Finale and GarageBand on my Macintosh.  My musical compositions can be heard at http://www.acenoface.com/.  Since I can’t sing because of my condition, I have collaborated with musicians in Canada, Australia, Italy and all over the United States, who sing the lyrics I write for my songs.  I socialize with people from my synagogue, have become  the webmaster for my congregation (Shaarey Zedek), and have cooking parties with members of the congregation and other friends, where I act as executive chef, telling my sous chefs what to do.  I recently also became the sixth member of the synagogue’s “Yad Squad” – a special group of members who have read 100 lines from the Bible in the original Hebrew.

How has ALS brought new significance to your life: Every day, I wake up and think to myself, “What can I do today to leave some kind of creative expression, be it part of my humor website (porkrind.com), or a new song, or a delicious dinner with family and friends?”