Excerpted from Across Alone:

The worst part of arthritis is the dispair or depression it can bring. This was the case with me. Having spent a large part of my life being extremely active and physical I did not want believe that this was being taken from me by arthritis. It was losing my physical strength more then anything else that cause me the greatest problems. As I slowly discovered that I was becoming weaker and weaker I retreated into myself more and more. I would often spend hours sitting in the dark, without even knowing that time was passing.

I needed a project, a hobby to distract me from my everyday problems.  I had always had the dream of sailing to the Bahamas or Bermuda and about this time the internet was really gaining notice. Since I was already connected to it I began searching for sailing stories and found a wealth of information about people building boats and sailing off to distant lands. I have been sailing since I was young and my father and I had even built a couple of boats together but I had never built a boat capable of taking me out on the open ocean. I had my project, I would build a boat and sail it somewhere, maybe even across the ocean. My friends and family all tried to talk me out of the idea saying that with my health it was a ridiculous idea. This just spurred me on. I spent six years working on my boat, doing a little more each year.

In the winter there wasn’t much I could do but I made cushions and sails and did other things that didn’t require being outdoors in the snow. This didn’t fill out my winter entirely and I saw myself starting to slide back into depression without the boat to concentrate on, spending more and more time sitting in the dark alone.

I needed something else in my life, something that would help me focus when I couldn’t work on my boat. I had changed doctors by now as the one that had spent so much time helping me had moved to another province. I thought back to her and the conversations we had, replaying them over in my mind. Something else sparked. I had once told her I loved writing and had I not gotten some bad advice in high school I would have gone to university to become a journalist. She didn’t laugh at this but encouraged me to write, something as simple as keeping a daily journal would help. I took it a step further and started writing a book. I have trouble writing because of my hands but I can type, just not too fast. I have always had an active mind and over the course of four winters managed to type 200 000 words and write a complete novel. I was two years into the boat building when I started the book and between the two they kept my mind busy. These projects also helped keep my depression at bay, and helped me interact more with people.