Photo: lindaslymediseasejournal.blogspot.com

Linda, originally from Connecticut, was mostly self-taught in photography, painting and poetry, but also received formal training at the New York Institute of Photography. After years of study and creating and finding her own unique expressive niche, she began showing her silk paintings professionally as a resident artist in a number of galleries in the late 1990’s.  Her hard work paid off even more: Linda’s paintings on silk have sold internationally and have been featured on news shows and in various publications such as Vermont Magazine.

Five years had gone by, and Linda’s health had deteriorated relentlessly to the point of disability.  The doctors she consulted were unable to pinpoint exactly what was happening to her body, but finally, in the summer of 2007, she obtained a firm diagnosis. She learned that a tick-borne illness, Lyme disease, was responsible for her debilitating symptoms.  That long-delayed diagnosis meant that the Lyme infection was deeply entrenched in her system, and recovery would take some time once treatment began.

Unsure of how long it would take to reverse her physical decline, or if she would ever recover fully, she faced the future with guarded hope. She started her therapy which began a road back to health, but it was not smooth or rapid. The medicines were strong and caused their own problems, too. 

“I was slowly introduced to a number of medications to get my body settled enough to start the Lyme protocol my doctor wanted to put me on. Then ever so slowly we have been working our way up in dosage amounts,” Linda said.

Blinding headaches, and problems with her heart, speech, cognition, and vision were accompanied by unremitting pain and continued despite therapy. Although she made some progress, the thought of losing the precious sense of sight wasn’t something she could think about without a growing sense of anxiety.  The illness had taken a seemingly irreversible toll on her life by then.

Linda’s ordeal was even more difficult to bear with the isolation brought about when friends slipped away.  Few even called to see how she was ...

doing anymore.  While her life’s work as an artist was retreating along with her friends, her energies, and her finances, the beloved home and studio that were the center of her life had to be put up for sale, and her husband’s health was worsening after a disabling back injury.

While Linda was soaking in the tub one particularly difficult day late last year, she thought how easy it would be to just slip under the water, take a deep breath, and fill her lungs with water.  It really seemed to be a reasonable way to end all the pain and the terrible losses that Lyme disease had brought to her.  But as quickly as those thoughts began, they ended, and with a calmness that overrode her anguish, she turned to prayer for an answer—for direction. 

Linda decided, “I was thinking a lot about suicide, but my Dad committed suicide when I was 9, and I could never leave my husband who is the love of my life like that. That was the turning point for me and that is when I did my first painting ‘Transfusing Lyme’.”


Initially, all of the paintings were going to be about the artist’s Lyme disease story, but she quickly decided to go beyond her personal experience. “My saving grace was the moment that I realized that my “Lyme Story” was the same as everyone else’s and that they also shared my suffering, fear, desperation and isolation,” she said.