Long time between visits....

I was feeling pretty low last night for awhile after I "lost" something and no matter where I looked I couldn't find it. BUT, in case you are wondering, I found it this morning! Now to get to the blog! I heard someone say this morning on T.V., that some people take their problems and just "wallow" in them and others do great things in their lives despite their disabilities! It comes to mind how much our ancestors had to really live with everything in the book thrown at them and never complain but gave us, despite what it seems the world is turning into, a chance to do some of the great things that some people do. I was calling to mind a cousin, who was a little younger than I but she contracted Polio as a child and even though in those days we didn't see each other as much, or really as much as we can communicate with each other these days, she was crippled and in our teen years we moved closer to each other. I remember her telling me one day, "I'll never be able to dance or anything like other people do." I told her of a girl who was in school with me, a grade older than me who had had Polio and she danced and did all sorts of things. She was one of the most popular girls in our school! Well, to make a long story short, I guess my cousin took my advice because after High School she went on to college where she met and married a man who was interested in the same things she was. Janet, from the time she was a little girl loved animals and worked part of her high school days at a dog kennel. She told me that if someday she could do something like that she would be in seventh heaven!!! Her husband and she put up a kennels and started raising thoroghbreds and the University of Washington was hiring some of their dogs to find people lost in snow slides and avalanches, etc. Hank, her husband got Cancer and after he found out about it his life ended. (He passed away the same year as I lost my husband.) Did Janet give up? No! She and her two boys, married now, were running quite a successful business so she started to judge dog shows, and for several years was one of the highly acclaimed judges on the A.K.C. show that is on T.V. all the time. When she would come to the town where I was living, or near it, to judge a show, she came and visited me! She was so "able!!" Off and on planes, busses, etc. She didn't drive or couldn't with her problem. Finally she began to get offers to judge dog shows all over the world!!! She, at one time would tell me that she just got back from South America, or Paris, or London. She fell though about four or five years ago and broke or cracked the brace that she had in her leg and so it, because of her age put a stop to her working!!! What a gal! Another person comes to mind. One of my sons who has Diabetes and has had it for about 25 years or more!! Did that stop him? No, he worked until his eyesight got so bad he could do no more driving and started taking a train in the L.A. area and finally had to retire from that and is now pretty much "house-bound"! Does that stop him?No!!! He started to take the Sacraments to people in the local hospital where he lives and now has quite a crew doing it with him! He doesn't drive but those who can, pick him up and drive him! His Pastor has him training the crews, which, because of what it is, keep changing. (a new baby, a serious illness or some other valid reason can't do it anymore.) It keeps my son quite busy and the thing is, it gives him a "Life"! He has become involved with other Parishional things too. AND I HAVE TO ADD HERE, HE HAS A WIFE WHO REALLY HELPS , AND UNDERSTANDS!!!!!! I have another member of my family who was born with what was considered a "lazy" eye! After her Mother and Father, from age one, took her to Dr. after Dr. and after several operations, she herself decided that enough was enough!!! Did this stop her??? She was quite a student in Grammer school and in High School, with a scholarship and finally after 4 years in College, went on to Law school and passed her Bar and is now a Lawyer!!!! We all of us are so proud of your achievements, honey!!!! A friend of mine, a man who belonged to the same Bible class that I attended for several years,was a house painter and fell off a ladder and shattered an ankle! This man has been to several Doctors, and several operations even after I knew him! Does this stop him???? He is one of my heroes!!! He still does some painting and is walking very well and without a cane, and I just can't believe him! Such courage!!!! What a guy!