Did you ever meet someone who would change your life, just in being who they are? In your life they just grab hold of your heart and you are ‘off the charts’ how you feel about them…..you know what I mean, right?
Today is Sailor’s 12th ‘Diaveresary’, as we say in the diabetes community. Twelve years ago today this family was devastated at the news that would change their lives forever. Diabetes would become the ‘new normal’. How horrible. This family took this thing called diabetes and ran with the notion that diabetes would just ‘not do’ in their household. And they ran far.
I want you to think for a moment of the people you know, that you would not know had it not been for a diagnosis of diabetes that made your roadways cross. Just think about that point for a minute.
Sailor, her dad, her mom, and her sister are four people who have just grabbed my heart. There is not a thing that this family does not try, if as a family, they can enjoy it together. Their passion for living, for life, and for just enjoying family and friends is more than admirable, it is darn-right enviable.
When you meet Sailor you are immediately taken at her zest for life and her willingness to help. To help a younger child with diabetes, to help set up a room, to help just to help. Her smile is electric and when you meet the rest of your family there is NEVER a question as to why Sailor is the way she is. Her older sister Sierra, without diabetes, is a carbon copy with this same zest and energy.
I feel selfish to think of how I know this family. I wish that circumstances would not have led us together but they have. Were this family not part of my life; and if I could not see them at least once a year or read about whatever they are doing on a particular day; the puzzle which makes up my life would surely be missing a piece……..a very meaningful and large piece.
So on this day of Sailor’s ‘diaversary’, I choose to be so thankful for this wonderful and incredible family being part of my life. Perhaps on everyone’s ‘diaversary’ we should use that day to also look around and celebrate the wonderful people in our lives; even though we also wish they never had to be.
Happy Diaversary Sailor—-you’re a ray of sunlight in all of the lives of people who are so fortunate to know you. We love you, and your family, more than you will ever know.
I am a diabetes dad.
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One reply on “A “Diaversary”. Celebrating the People in Our Life…..Though We Also Wish We Never Met at All!!!”
Awesome story, thanks for sharing it with us.