My Mother's Disease

The Bronx Radio Rookies stories were broadcast in October 2009 during Morning Edition on WNYC Radio. To produce these stories, WYNC's Radio Rookies partnered with our very own Next Generation Center, a fantastic multi-service youth drop-in center.

Until recently all Victoria (Vikky) Cruz knew was that her mother was sick. Her mother hasn't been able to walk in years, can barely speak and goes into rages, but no one ever told Vikky why. Now, at 17-years-old, Vikky struggles to cope with her mother's illness, a rare gentetic disease called neuroacanthytosis, and the ways it's taken over the mother she once knew.