Skip to main content

Walk For ALS

We did it! We walked in the 2014 Walk to Defeat ALS in Seattle. We made our team goal and this was our first year of participation. We had a dozen walkers show up and what a great experience it turned out to be. There were balloons, vendors, ALSA friends, PALS, children, dogs, family, friends, music, cameras, and camraderie. I never realized how much fun I'd have!

Way more people showed up to walk than I imagined. First, my daughter surprised me by showing up from sunny California on Friday night. How she and my husband kept that secret is beyond me. My sister, Renee, arrived with her bestie, Jennifer. My dad surprised me and walked for me and the Admiral at his place of work, a nursing home in Issaquah.  My step daughter, Angelique, brought my honorary grand-daughter, Lizzy, to walk. My brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Emily, roared up on their Harley Davidson. My friend and partner-in-crime, Lynda Muir, brought her daughter, Journ. My husband and top contributer, Rodney, brought me.

Speaking of contributors, our nephew, Brian, and brother-in-law, Steve, donated and Microsoft should match it. My husband thought his employer would match but Hermanson apparently has no love for the ALS sufferer and refused to match or donate. Too bad he didn't dump Hermanson for McKinstry when he had the opportunity a few months ago. They have a heart for philanthropy. Yeah, I out big money employers. Sue me. It's the truth. But I will give the office worker credit, bless her heart, she gave an unsolicited sizable donation and she never even met me. I'm impressed! My daughter, both of my sisters, and my sister's boyfriend all donated. As did the employee's at Life Care Center of Federal Way. That impresses me to the hilt.
Labels:
Location: Federal Way, WA, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Remember...

I remember catching fireflies,  putting them in a jar, as a girl of five. I picked pears off a tree that overhung an alleyway on my route home from school, then enjoyed the forbidden fruit. .I had a golden cat who chased a gray mouse through our living room sending my mother, 3-year old sister, and me screaming atop the sofa and chairs. We lived in a farmhouse and I watched Romper Room. A daddy longlegs skittered across my dirty kid legs as I teeter-tottered on a broken kitchen chair back. I played grocery store and laid out a bedroll for group nap time in preschool. We lived in an apartment attached to a bakery. My maternal grandparents visited and a photo was snapped. Grandma held Dawn and Grandpa held me. I held Grandpa's chin. Walking through the back of the flour-caked kitchen, I saw scrumptious pastries and colorful toys stuck in the cupcakes with my hungry kids eyes. We lived in a two-story apartment building next door to a large farmer's field.  That field was my...
3 comments
Read more

Lashing Out

Fed up. Sick of hearing, "I'm sorry."  Apologies don't erase the pain you inflict on me. You pull my pubic hair. Your nitrile gloves pull the hair from my head. Not once in a while but day in and day out. You turn me in a manner that suits you rather than in a manner that doesn't stress my body. Why won't you use the pad and sheet to turn me as one unit? Instead, you allow my body to twist as you hold me one-handed. How good you are at your job. What part of "my muscles are dying" don't you understand?
Post a Comment
Read more

Managed

Managed care, do not get me started. It is the bane of my existence and my savior. If quadriplegia has curtailed my activities, and it has, then being in a home has curtailed even more. I've had to dumb it down and set my standards low. Gone, are the halcyon days of getting in my wheelchair to go for a stroll or sit in the sun, or even sit in the sun room. Neither the nurses, nor patient care technicians, know how to put me in my wheelchair. Seriously. My chair has head controls and it is a bafflement. Most caregivers don't even realize I have head controls. First, they hit the left head pad when they lift the armrest which turns the chair on. Next, they sling me over and place me in the chair. The problem? My head, naturally, rests on the headrest, which accelerates and drives the chair and is beyond my control. Running over a caregiver or running myself into an obstruction are very real consequences of their ignorance. What could be worse? The caregivers remain clueless abo...
Post a Comment
Read more