Ann Rejrat

I sat on a crowded pool deck the day I realized how bad it was.Hours before, my sister Krystyna woke me up during the night with another headache. During winter 2007, she had moved home to Scranton, Lackawanna County, from Virginia on disability leave when she started having headaches and falling.Undiagnosed, doctors sent her home while they tried to figure out what was happening. She was 26 and it was only a few years after she graduated from Temple University where she was on the women’s varsi...

I have been spending a lot of time this summer in a stairwell.The stairs in the Lancaster city parking garage I frequent are hot, a little smelly and only offer concrete walls as a view. That’s not a big deal if you are only parking your car. But for a workout, it’s not the most glamorous. The one plus is the breeze that occasionally comes through the barred windows. And I am thankful for that.If you’re just joining me, this is the second column in a series about hiking Mount Katahdin in Maine w...

There’s a wooden sign at the start of the Hunt Trail on Maine’s Mount Katahdin.“You are entering Maine’s largest wilderness,” the sign read. “Your safety is your responsibility. Set a turnaround time and stick to it. Your destination is your safe return to the trailhead. Rescuers can be many hours in arriving.”Clear. Concise. Slightly ominous.If you’re just joining me, this is the third and final column in a series about hiking to the top of Mount Katahdin with my sister, Krystyna, who has multi...