By KEITH EDDINGS
THE JOURNAL NEWS

WHITE PLAINS, NY — Robert Greer is slowly letting go of the things he loves — the Handel concerts at Lincoln Center, driving, the gym, his independence — but he is keeping a tight hold on a pledge he made to himself when Lou Gehrig's disease began gripping his body two years ago.

He promised himself then that he would not give in to fear, anger, bitterness or depression, which he said could poison his enjoyment of what he has left, including his seat on the White Plains Common Council, the Handel operas he now listens to in the sunroom of his Cushman Road home, and his family.

A grandchild, his third, is due in April.

"I try to take as much pleasure as I can in every day," Greer said at his home last week, aided by his wife, Helen, who worked as a sort of translator for a reporter trying to understand a voice that has been slowed and coarsened by the disease. "For me, that means family and my books and music and my duty to the city."

After a slow decline that began with a twitching in an arm two years ago, Greer was diagnosed in January with the disease, known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. The invariably fatal disorder disconnects the muscles from the brain but spares the brain itself. By March, one arm had gone limp and he needed help eating, but he was able to work out on an exercise bike and a treadmill three times week at Burke Rehabilitation Hospital, a few miles from his house.

Today, his arms and hands are paralyzed, although he can walk with assistance. He sometimes uses a respirator to push air in and out of his weakening lungs, and he is about to begin training on a machine that will synthesize his speech by reading the gaze in his eyes, in preparation for the day when his voice will disappear. But he remains lucid and alert and has no plan to give up the seat on the Common Council that he has held since 1991.

"I'm fully engaged with City Hall and my colleagues," said Greer, 68, a Democrat who challenged Mayor Joseph Delfino four years ago. "I was elected in 2003 to a four-year term, and I intend to complete as much of it as possible."

In fact, rather than causing him to give up on his political career, Lou Gehrig's disease has put another issue on his plate.

"I'm not a fan of W, but this one I take personally," he said, using a nickname for President Bush to describe his anger over Bush's decision to limit federally sponsored stem-cell research. "It's insulting to all of us who have these terrible diseases. I wonder if W would change his mind if Laura Bush were to be diagnosed with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's or ALS."

Although he is passionate about the politics of the disease, he is matter-of-fact about the personal toll it has taken.

"I can no longer do that," he said, when asked about his sessions with physical therapists.

"No more, because it's hard to move me," he said about the operas he used to attend with his wife in New York.

Greer said he still can tend to his duties as a councilman but conceded he no longer performs constituent services and now focuses mostly on policy. In a wheelchair and with the help of an aide, Greer attended the last council meeting, Nov. 7, and said he would be at the meeting tonight.

Greer missed a council work session two weeks ago, conserving his energy for a ceremony later in the evening where he received an award from the city's Human Rights Commission for his work with agencies that include Family Services of Westchester, Head Start and the White Plains Public Library.

Councilwoman Rita Malmud nominated him for the award.

"He's my definition of a gentleman," Malmud said. "That's someone who treats every individual with respect, with dignity, with justice and equality, who works to see that everyone has the same opportunities. That's Bob Greer."

This year, Greer helped organize an ALS support group, even as the disease was overcoming him. The group meets monthly at Burke.

"It's divided between victims and caregivers," he said. "Caregivers need support also."

His primary caregiver is his wife of 29 years, a retired textbook editor at Random House. Robert Greer is retired from MBIA Insurance Corp., where he was vice president of finance.

Helen Greer, 65, spends much of her days making doctor appointments, managing home health aides, filing insurance claims and fixing whatever breaks around the house, a chore now well beyond her husband. After running through the list of duties, she suggested that the disease has given as well as taken away.

"When someone is very ill or has a serious disease, the time you spend together becomes more precious," she said. "So you make the most of it."

Another caregiver is on the way. The Greers' youngest daughter, Alexis, will move back home by the end of the year, 10 years after she moved out to attend Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She said she wants to be "another pair of hands" for a man she said once couldn't be kept down.

"He was always active and never stressed out either, as far as I could tell," said Alexis Greer, 27. "I wish I'd inherited that quality. I think the only time I ever saw him stressed out was during the campaign for mayor, and even then, who wouldn't have been?"

Alexis Greer said she plans to watch a lot of movies with her father, a classic movie buff, and to continue the jewelry business she recently launched. Another daughter, Ashley Saber, 36, lives with her husband and two children in Sloatsburg and is expecting another child in April.

After two years of losses, having a daughter back home will be a gain for Greer. He's already picked a few films to watch with her, including one he calls his lifelong favorite: "The Best Years of Our Lives," a 1946 classic about three World War II veterans who return to their small town to find that they and their families have changed forever