You know I’ve been encouraging you to figure out ways to ask for help all month when it comes to living with your (or your child’s) diabetes. It’s important.
I had a strange afternoon yesterday, and it showed me the total awesomeness of strangers and it has been making me grin ever since. How lucky are we to be a part of such an amazing world??
(Okay so it has been rain-free and sunshiny and today it’s going to be in the 80s so I freely admit I may be a little wacky just because of the change in weather!)
I thought I’d close out the month with a reminder that we could ALL use this skill in our lives, with and without diabetes being a part of it.
Check out this little story a reporter wrote about a woman at a Texas road race:
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Before I ran my first half marathon six years ago, Barbara Sucher sent me an email. She wished me luck, said she knew I could do it, and then told me this, which I’ve thought about every time I’ve run a half-marathon:
“In a race, I always write the Winston Churchill quote ‘Never give in’ on the back of my legs. Many, many people have told me how inspiring that is and that it keeps them going.”
Barbara is 66 now, still running marathons and half marathons. Last Sunday, she ran an amazing 2:12 at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas Half Marathon , finishing third in her age group. Elated, she headed for her truck on the huge Cotton Bowl parking lot.
“I knew where I’d left it, but an ambulance came by and I got a little off track,” she says. “I continued to search until I was getting cold and a little panic-stricken.”
Suddenly, Barbara says, she tripped on buckled pavement and landed face first. Totally stunned, she just lay there.
“A very nice man named Andy rushed over and asked if I was all right,” she continues. “I couldn’t even think of who I was or anything else about me…Finally, I realized I was wearing my Road ID and I pointed to it. He tried calling the numbers and finally left a message for my daughter, Kelli.”
Then he told her, “I won’t leave until someone comes to get you.”
Other people stopped by, too, offering to help Barbara find her truck. She couldn’t remember what it looked like, but thought it was a Toyota. They set off searching, and she could hear them calling out to one another. She finally felt able to sit up. Andy kept watching until Kelli called and took Barbara to the emergency room.
A CT scan of Barbara’s head showed two enormous bumps. She hadn’t broken anything, hadn’t bruised any ribs. She finally began “to get my senses back,” she says. “But I have a huge and startling black and green and red eye and look pathetic!”
Her point of telling me this, she says, was — well, basically to say thank you. She knew her fellow runners were cold and tired, yet they went out of their way to help her.
Life can turn on the proverbial dime, or on the twist of an ankle. It can be tripped up by a 3 a.m. phone call, or by a piece of concrete on a parking lot. When that happens, what a blessing it is to have people around to make sure you’re OK; to guide you to where you need to be; and to make sure, if at all possible, that you never give in.
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Let the concepts of asking for and giving help and what those two actions give you in return carry you well past the month of March. Let it be something you always hope to share, in either form, wherever you go and whatever you encounter.
All my best to each of you!
