“WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS, TAKE PICTURES”
Clarendon Hills resident shares late father’s message of hope, living life to the fullest
At 24, Molly Solik felt lost. She was working a low-paying job she didn’t enjoy, coming home to an apartment that didn’t feel like home. Like many in their mid-20s, she was struggling to find her purpose.
Then everything changed.
Molly Solik and her father Jerry Friedberg traveled the world together to live life to the fullest despite Friedberg’s ALS diagnosis.
One day, her father, Jerry Friedberg, sat her down and shared that he had just been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The news was shocking and devastating. As an only child of divorced parents, Solik suddenly found herself preparing to be her father’s primary caregiver.
“Maybe I had heard of the disease, but I ignorantly didn’t know anything,” Solik recalled. “I just slowly started to do research. And, you know, stupidly, I thought money could fix it…and that everything would be okay, and it just didn’t work out that way.”
Both Solik and her dad knew that it wouldn’t be long before the disease began to take its toll in irreparable ways. So, they decided the best option for the time being was to live life as fully as possible. For Friedberg, this meant traveling the world.
“ His phrase was to always hit the road. He always wanted to hit the road and travel,” Solik said. “I didn’t realize it was going to be four years long!”
They started with a two-year road trip across the country, driving from state to state and visiting new places and friends along the way. During this time, Friedberg documented their travels—and his battle with ALS—by taking thousands of pictures on his 35 mm cameras.
“We did come home for a few months so that we could literally do laundry, develop the pictures, go through the pictures, pay some bills, repack,” Solik said. “And then we hit the road. We left the country for two years, and then we spent a month in every country that we visited.”
As the trip progressed, so did Friedberg’s disease. He was unable to operate most of his body without assistance, and he required full-time care from his daughter and an additional hired caretaker. Still, Solik recalled, his brain was perfectly sharp, and he wanted to optimize his experiences in any way he could for as long as possible—even if it required extra work.
Solik is assisting her father with the camera.
“[We were] somewhere in Mexico, and he wanted to climb up a ruin, so we had to carry his wheelchair up like the side of a ruin,” Solik laughed. “You can’t really say much when you’re taking care of someone that’s dying. You really can’t complain about it.”
They cherished every day—spending nights in the Sahara desert, flying in a three-seater plane in Belize, admiring Grecian architecture, and even enduring a stressful encounter with the Mexican military. The trip had reached its end when Friedberg required oxygen full-time. The two returned to Hinsdale with over 15,000 photos documenting their life-changing journey.
“Shortly after [his diagnosis], he went to College of DuPage and signed up for a photography class. I don’t know if it was something he had been thinking about,” Solik said of his dedication to the photos. “I don’t know why being there wasn’t enough. Because we had traveled a lot before this, and there was never a camera. It was my mom that always had a camera. So I’m not sure. So, I wish I could ask.”
Friedberg was housebound during his final year, and Solik was by his side until his last day. That day—Father’s Day of 2002—Friedberg made his last photo album, one of 45 that Solik has today. The albums showcase delicious food, ancient artifacts, wild animals, and stunning scenery; more importantly, however, they represent an unconditional love between father and daughter.
“It’s crazy that it’s 23 years, but it still sometimes feels like yesterday,” Solik said. “He never met my second life, my husband, my kids, you know, the wedding, that kind of stuff… It’s so much energy to miss him, but yet I never want to stop.”
Solik keeps his memory alive by sharing these photos in any way she can. She’s showcased them at local art fairs and libraries, hoping to share their message to as many people as possible. One day, she dreams of displaying the photos in hospitals and doctors offices—places where people might need hope the most.
“My ultimate goal would be to make a coffee table book and call it, ‘When Life Gives You Lemons, Take Pictures,’” Solik said.
It’s a message she takes with her every day and one that’s carried her through years of grief. When she looks back at the photos, she’s reminded of her dad: his resilience, his kindness, his generosity, and his unwavering commitment to capturing all the beautiful moments life has to offer.
May is ALS Awareness Month. For more information, visit ALS.org.
