When I was a staff person at what was then called the JDF (didn’t know that did you?) I was at a meeting and the woman at the microphone said with that incredible smile; “Lock the doors because no one is getting out until they commit to this.”
That woman was Dame Carol Lurie. Last night, quietly in her sleep I am informed, the world lost probably the most influential person in making what the JDRF has become to the world today. She would dispute that, of course, and give the credit elsewhere.
She was strong and the many times I have referred to her and Lee Ducat when I lecture, it is always to show the power of what two moms could do in a world, where they believed; that diabetes just would not do.
I left the JDF, she stayed. I went to the DRI and it was years later that my son was also diagnosed when I opened my mail to a note that simply said that although we are on separate paths, our goals would always be the same; our kids. And I’ll never forget how she signed it, “…see you at the finish line.—C.L.”
She and her husband, Erwin (who also passed a while back), were powerhouses in this world of diabetes. Long before the internet, social media, and electronic outreach; Carol somehow found a way to connect the corners of the earth as one diabetes voice. And the voices rose. The voices were heard. And changes happened.
So when you think that nothing can get done or be done in this world anymore; think of Dame Carol Lurie–or ‘just-a-mom’ Carol Lurie as she would say. A mom who just believed that in this world, under her watch, diabetes will just not do.
It is my thought that she and Erwin are in black tie & gown behind the pearly gates dancing together and half way through the evening, she may very well speak to all of the angels and say, “Close those gates and no one leaves until we figure out a way to significantly help those who I have left behind.” …..and her legacy will continue on.
See you at the finish line my friend.
I am a diabetes dad.
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