Despite debilitating disease, Asheville man shows a different kind of grace

BY JOHN LE
JUNE 27, 2016

Eric Schlensker of Asheville participates in a Tai Chi class to help with his Parkinson's disease. (Photo credit: WLOS staff)

WLOS — ASHEVILLE, N.C. -- There's a healthy relationship between movement and life.

Eric Schlensker of Asheville could have just stopped in his tracks eight years ago.

"It's therapeutic," he says of Tai Chi. "This is my therapy."

Eric says the kinetic energy of Tai Chi made an instant impact after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

"So, it exercises that part of my brain that is having trouble," he tells us. "You can see my left hand, my left leg, my voice is affected."

Linda is his instructor and his wife.

"The minute you stop moving, it just goes downhill," Linda tells us.

They're partners on the floor, but in a very different way than when they first met more than 30 years ago.

"He said, 'Does anybody want to dance with me?' and I said, 'Sure,'" Linda recalls. "So, the lady with the cast is the one who jumped up and danced!"

Eventually, the two became partners in life and ballroom dance.

"Our goal was not to be the champion couple. We wanted to have fun together," she says.

"Oh, it's always great to have a partner that you like," he says.

Back then, the last dance might have been the last thing on their mind.

"Under stress, the tremors would start," Linda recalls. "I think they were the first signs, so, he would get stressed out."

"We were heavily into ballroom dancing when I was diagnosed with Parkinson's," Eric says. "But for many reasons including Parkinson's I couldn't keep on dancing."

He lost one passion but quickly stepped into a new one.

"It's like chapters in your life," Linda explains. "You have chapters you can go back to, and this is a new chapter."

The man who spent more than two decades in the Air Force wasn't about to stop fighting.

"And there's a lot of life to live," Eric says. "Just go out and grab hold of it and don't be devastated by the prognosis they tell you is there."

The Schlenskers say Tai Chi has made a world of difference. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concluded that the martial art improves balance, posture and mobility.

"It challenges my balance. It challenges my tremors," he says. "If I move my hands and legs, the tremors stop."

Despite Parkinson's, he's found new life after dance. In the process, he shows a different kind of grace.

"He rolls with the punches," Linda says.

To watch video:

http://wlos.com/news/local/despite-debilitating-disease-asheville-man-shows-a-different-kind-of-grace