Editor’s note: Please know if you live with diabetes or parent a child with diabetes this poem may bring up difficult emotion for you. This past week, two young people with Type 1 diabetes perished. I was moved to write a poem after learning about their deaths that occurred just days apart from one other. My heart felt broken as I mourned for their lives lost. Putting these words onto paper was a way for me to express some of the grief I was feeling. Living with Type 1 diabetes, whether one knows the individual who passed away or not is irrelevant. When one is given an exit pass and leaves our shared community too soon, we all feel the ripples left in the pond.
Looking ahead to another 25 years of life.
25 years. What does this mean exactly? It means I am grateful to be alive. Every day is a gift. I have learned to identify the people and things that are most important in my life and this is what I focus my energy and time on. Today you see, I am celebrating 25 years of life!
25 years ago today I almost lost this life of mine. I was in 6th grade and just 11 years old. I was misdiagnosed for many months as having a virus when I first started getting sick in the fall of 1986 – until that fateful day of February 13, 1987.