Messages of hope
The first sign that something was wrong was a guitar pick.
Bruce Berg kept dropping it.
For a man whose life had revolved around music for more than half a century, the small slip was easy to dismiss – until it wasn’t. Nearly two years later, Berg is living with ALS, and his wife, Daniel Island resident Janet Lee Berg, has picked up a paintbrush.
She recently hand-painted 150 rocks, scattering 100 along Daniel Island trails, parks, benches, sidewalks, and businesses. Another 50 are headed downtown.
The number is deliberate.
“This monster of a disease, ALS, has been around for 150 years, thus the 150 painted rocks,” she said.
Painted with smiley faces, butterflies, and other cheerful designs meant to make passersby stop and smile, the rocks carry a more serious message on the back: “Please Help Cure ALS.”
“I am hoping the rocks bring a smile to their face, and when they turn them over, they are inspired to learn more about the disease and donate to the ALS Association, no matter if it's $5 or $500,” she said. “We lack funding. We need help!”
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gherig's disease, damages nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord leading to muscle weakness that can cause difficulty walking, speaking, swallowing, and breathing.
For the Bergs, the disease arrived after a lifetime built around records, concerts, and each other.
They have been together since they were 15 and recently celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary. Bruce Berg opened Record Stop on Long Island, New York, 52 years ago, and the family business later expanded to another store on King Street in Charleston, where he became known as the “King on King.”
His stories span decades of rock ‘n’ roll: attending Woodstock in 1969, meeting musicians, and once kissing Janis Joplin on the cheek backstage at Madison Square Garden while she wore her famous fluffy white hat.
“Music has always been Bruce's oxygen, which this disease will eventually rob him of,” Janet Berg said.
She said as his health declined and he could no longer work at the store, their daughter, Janelle, stepped in to run it. Their son, Jeffrey, runs the family’s New York music business and visits his father as often as possible.
“Our son and daughter are our earth angels,” she said. “Funny, how proud you can be of your children growing up, but you don't even realize how deep down good they really are until you are faced with something this devastating.”
For Janet Berg, painting has become a refuge.
“I enjoy the motion of the art – the stroke of the brush and how it occupies my troubling thoughts,” she said.
She plans to keep painting and leaving rocks around the community “as long as my paint brushes hold out.”
Beneath all that color is the same request, repeated 150 times: “Pay attention.”
“What I wish, mostly, is to raise awareness of this disease! It is wrong to label it as ‘rare.’ It is not rare at all.”
To support or learn more about ALS, visit als.org/get-involved.