New York teenager Michelle Husslein practically grew up at Walt Disney World, not that she can remember.
Her mother tries to trigger the memories. They look at old photographs or videos of Orlando on some of their 38 trips over the past 14 years.
There's Michelle as an infant dressed as Minnie Mouse. In elementary school, little Michelle grinned with Winnie the Pooh, her favorite.
But the childhood memories are gone. The early trips to Orlando have disappeared from Michelle's memory since she suffered a concussion in a shower accident three years ago that wiped away 13 years of recollections.
So Michelle, 16, is starting over.
"I'm making new memories," Michelle said.
For her Sweet 16, Michelle dressed in elegant prom-style gowns and posed for pictures at the iconic locations at each Disney theme park. She walked down Main Street U.S.A hand-in-hand with her mother, Patty Husslein.
Their frequency of 38 trips over the years sometimes earns the response: "What? Are you crazy?" from their loved ones. Others are impressed and want to copy their lifestyle.
Patty Husslein, is unapologetic about her love for Disney.
"There's where we go. That's our happy place," she said.
It was always just Michelle and her mother, a massage therapist from Long Island, a single parent caring for her only child.
The theme parks were constantly changing _ new rides opening, old favorites shutting down. Above all, they treasure spending time together on their vacations.
Patty Husslein, a Disney annual passholder, has purchased a townhouse in Lake Nona and plans to move to Central Florida after Michelle graduates from high school.
Michelle, a high school senior, is looking at colleges in Florida to be closer to Walt Disney World and her mother.
"That's been our plan for years," Patty Husslein said.
