One of the loveliest people I knew was a double amputee. She was smart as heck and funny and truly the sweetest woman alive. She loved hard and she called me Molly.
Why?
Cuz she did what she wanted to do and I was the last person in the world who would EVER dare to correct her.
She had a home health nurse who would take care of her but there was a need for someone else between times when they would find someone to replace the old person and I, loving her as much as I did, would help.
I remember having to help her use the bathroom. She lived in a wheelchair when she wasn't in her bed and I'd have to wheel her to her room. Then...we would move her to the bed. Next...I'd move her wheelchair to the side and pull her seated potty up to the bed. Then...I'd help her on the potty, put a lined mat on her bed and I would leave the room and close the door so she could have her privacy.
She'd yell, "Molly!" when she was done and I'd return and help transfer her back to the bed on the lined mat, close the lid on the seated potty and move it to the space it lived in her room. Then I'd help transfer her back to her wheelchair and she could return to watching her stories.
I can close my eyes now and feel the softness of her cheek against my lips as I kissed her hi and bye. She was truly such a lovely, lovely woman.
I miss her.
A friend of mine was devastated Saturday night as she learned of the death of her friend who was only 44 years old. She had hypertension which caused heart problems. She was, of course, on meds to treat it. The poor woman had a 7 year old daughter.
Again...she was 44 years old.
The friend is, understandably...extremely upset and it cut her to the core.
Many of the people in my family are overweight and obese. Some morbidly obese. I share the same gene pool as they do.
But I would NEVER eat the way they eat.
So many people think all they have to do is workout and they will lose the weight they know they need to lose because they just know or because their doctor has told them so. They might even work out rigorously and yet...still eat the same. Fried this, buttered that, cream de la something, stewed to death veggies with salted meat. Foods cooked to the point where you no longer recognize their original state. Pies, cakes, cupcakes, chips, sodas, white bread. FAST.FOOD.
Things which should only be eaten in moderation.
But seem to always make it on their plates regularly.
Robby and I had a long conversation about this Sunday morning. I shared with him that it scared me how common and how easy it seems to be to slip up and have this be a way of life. The fact that we don't have kids and, therefore, no one to take care of us when we get older is something constantly on my mind. He piped up and said...it would be just as worse if we had children and allowed ourselves to eat our way to death leaving them parentless before it was time.
As if it is ever time.
I thunk on it and determined that eating this way and living a stagnant life is like taking a step toward suicide daily. I mean...if eating healthily is eating to LIVE...then NOT eating healthily is certainly eating to DIE.
It broke my heart to think of that poor woman, 44 years old, dying in her sleep. Only two years older than me. Gone. That precious, precious baby...mommyless.
*sigh*
This ish is real yall. Really real.
Stop the killing.
EAT.TO.LIVE.