Fox connects his resilience lessons back to his youth with his mother and father, William, who died in 1990. As military children, Fox and his four siblings looked out for one another (William served in the Canadian troops for 25 years), and Phyllis was the family’s glue.
Michael J. Fox
“Army wives are adaption masters,” he says. “They just know how to handle a new scenario, get the house together, get the schools set up, get a job on the side — since military money is nothing. We didn’t get it as youngsters. Now I understand.”
The actor, who has collected more than $1.5 billion for Parkinson’s research through the Michael J. Fox Foundation, admits that a fractured hand, shoulder, right arm, and elbow have tested his optimism during the previous year.

But he is optimistic today, “rocking and rolling” as his recovery comes full circle. “I’m just coming through where the last of my injuries are mending up; my arm feels terrific,” he said. “Life is fascinating.” “This is what you get.”
In difficult circumstances, Fox recalls a maxim he developed while recovering from a risky spinal cord surgery to remove a tumor on his spine in 2018.
“If I can find thankfulness in anything I do and whatever scenario I’m in if I can find one little thing to be grateful for, it turns the whole situation around and allows for the possibility of grace, of something great happening,” the actor says. “I’m just getting back into that groove, so it’s very good.”