Inspiring a legacy: Angela Parker-Brown's family reflects on how she lived

Angela Parker-Brown, 50, passed away this weekend after a long battle with ALS and a recent infection.

CTV News first met Parker-Brown in August 2022 after she completed her memoir, called “Writing With My Eyes: Staying Alive While Dying," by using a technology called PCEye that tracked her eye movement.

As her family plans a funeral, they reflect on how she lived.

“She never gave up,” said her father Sonny Parker. “Even in her last three years, she was strong.”

Parker-Brown was strong despite becoming paralyzed from the neck down, as well as positive despite not being able to talk.

Using her eye gazing technology, she could select letters on a keyboard to write out texts, emails or sentences the machine would read aloud in an automated voice.

Blink by blink, she wrote her 180 page memoir in just two months.

“I wanted to share my journey,” Parker-Brown told CTV News through her eye gaze technology back in August 2022. “And how my journey with ALS has opened my mind to an entirely new world of possibility.”

On Amazon, her memoir received a five-star rating and rave reviews.

“She reached so many people and I’m truly grateful for her. It was amazing what she did,” said her brother Wayne Parker. “I would sit up here at night and she would blink out that book and I wondered what she was doing at 2 a.m. in the morning.”

 Even before her sickness, Parker-Brown was a role model to her niece Jessica Maxwell.

“She was like the coolest person ever to me,” Jessica Maxwell said.

The two would have sleepovers and watch scary movies. Jessica Maxwell was in awe of her aunt who loved to travel and cook -- a person who she said dressed well and knew how to do hair and makeup.

“I would literally sit there and watch her do all those things,” she said. “She was one of my first best friends.”

When diagnosed with ALS in 2018, Parker-Brown was determined to keep going.

Watching her adapt to her new reality taught Parker-Brown's family and others around her important life lessons.

“Having a more positive outlook on life through every situation really,” said her nephew Tyler Maxwell.

“She did show me that life is meant to be lived as much as you can live it,” her brother Wayne said.

Parker-Brown leaves behind twin daughters Paris and Parker but also motivation to seize each day. 

“She was an inspiration for anyone who has any disease, especially ALS,” her father Sonny said.

Her family wants to thank everyone in her community who has supported her.

“I appreciate what they have done for Angela and our family,” her mother Carol Parker said.