Page created by: Kathleen Vestuto

Marjorie Vestuto knew what it was to be a caregiver for a person with Parkinson's disease. At a time when dopamine deficiency just beginning to become identified with PD, Marjorie and her siblings cared for their mother, Estelle Inglish, as she became increasingly symptomatic. Marjorie made the 370-mile journey between two Glendales, California and Arizona, several times a year to manage doctors' visits, therapy sessions and her mother's well-being. She handled grocery shopping, housework, bills, medication dispensing and personal care, and reviewed the work of visiting professionals. She and her 10-year-old daughter designed crafts to decorate her mother's room, such as a basket of artificial flowers to hang near the bed, carefully following Estelle's specific instructions about exactly where the little red cardinal should be placed.

Treatments such as levodopa and management of side effects would not become commercially available until several years after Marjorie lost her mother. She retained a sensitive curiosity about the identification of potential causes, such as genetic and environmental factors, and of the progress of various therapies. When her daughter joined the staff at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, she followed the Foundation's news blog with a personal pride.

Marjorie undoubtedly inherited a number of things from Estelle: piquant humor, persistence and a deep sense of humanity. And music: Estelle was a gifted pianist, and Marjorie was something of a child prodigy, playing complex piano pieces at age four. She developed an exquisite coloratura soprano voice, and was a local radio star before she graduated high school. She and her sister Billie Jean relocated to the Los Angeles area in the late 1940s, and Marjorie performed in recitals, concerts and musicals. Her introductions to Hollywood studios were not to her taste, and she left the business to marry Nicholas Vestuto in 1948. Marjorie dedicated herself to raising her three children, all of whom would benefit from her musical expertise, love of art and theater, and irrepressible charm. The home was filled with her singing, piano playing and her peals of coloratura laughter.

On March 9, 2016, nearly six months after her 91st birthday, Marjorie died in the Glendale, California home she shared with her sister Billie Jean. Her daughter dedicates this page to her memory, her remarkable caregiving, her love of her family, and those peals of laughter.