When things get bad, you pretty much have two options. You can either sit in the corner and complain or you can step up and make a difference.

I like the second one much more.

With the exception of my parents’ death, I have had avoided major life problems for the most part. My family has faced some health challenges, but nothing that really shook us to the core. Until last fall.

One of my sisters called me on my ride home a little more than a year ago, a sure signal that something bad had happened. We keep in touch a lot, but usually via e-mail and other online means. The name on the screen of my cell phone helped me prepare myself before I answered.

Parkinson’s Disease. Until I noticed a tremor in her hand a few months prior, I never thought I would hear those words. We get taken down by heart disease and things like that. We try to change our diets and take pills to fight our genes.

But this was different. I have learned a lot in the past year about the ways people suffering from Parkinson’s can take it on, but still have trouble wrapping my head around something with no real cure striking my family.

As the youngest of eight, I knew this day would come. I don’t want to call it a burden, but I realize what will happen to my siblings over the next few decades. That didn’t stop me from hating the beginning of the process.

My sister told me at the time that Parkinson’s is not something you die from, it’s something you die with. Logically I understand and appreciate that, but it doesn’t stop the hurt and the pain. But as I said in the beginning, I don’t like sitting around and thinking about those things. Neither do my siblings.

That’s how I ended up spending a recent Friday night selling tickets and bingo cards and all other sorts of things at a fundraiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. The group does a wonderful job setting up Parkinson’s patients with an outlet to raise awareness and money for research.

Since my sister already had experience in running these kinds of events, the bingo made complete sense. With a network of family to lean on, she had plenty of volunteers for help as well as donations of prizes. We hope to reprise this event as well as add many other events to support the cause.

We raised a nice chunk of money for the foundation and, as usual, had a great time. With a few of my sister’s grandkids running around the room amidst the bingo calls, you would never really know the reason we had gathered.

That’s not just because family took up about a quarter of the attendance (when don’t we take up a chunk of a crowd?). That’s because of the attitude we all share, the knowledge that sitting in a corner and pouting doesn’t make any difference.

Plus, if you do that, you don’t win good stuff like my wife, daughter and I did. The person who dies with the most toys might not win, but it sure is fun getting those toys.