Like all of you, I was in joyous tears at 11 p.m. EST on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. Like many of you, I worked really hard to make that moment happen. I knocked on more doors than I can count, I delivered food to our hard-working volunteers at our local HQ, I donated more money than I could afford, and I spoke with friends and neighbors. We all did everything we could to make that glorious night a possibility.
But I did not do all of this simply to elect Barack Obama our President. I was also walking and donating for the very personal, and very profound hope that his Presidency would bring to a lovely young woman I have known for many years and love so very much. I walked and donated for a miracle for Kate.
As I said in a diary I wrote a week or so before the election, I was walking and canvassing for Barack Obama and also for others. I was walking and knocking for soldiers killed because of faulty wiring resulting from cheap short-cuts made by the no-bid contractors hired by the Bush Administration who cut every corner to make more money for themselves. I was walking and knocking for displaced homeowners like Sylvia Wise, who, in addition to having to give up her home, had to give up her best companion (her dog), because she was unable to find a place that she could afford that accepted pets.
But what really kept me walking and knocking, what really kept me going up the stairs at 18 four-story walk-up apartment buildings on a hot afternoon when my legs had turned to rubber, what really kept me going the night I canvassed in the pouring rain with my flashlight, when I was soaked to my underclothes, were thoughts of my niece, Kate ~ and others waiting for a cure from stem-cell research.
My beautiful, wonderful niece, Kate, was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes on January 2, 1992. She was then 16 months old. When my brother and sister-in-law got her to the hospital on New Year’s Day, after she had spiked a tremendous fever, her blood-sugar level was over 700. (Normal is 100 or less.) She was, literally, near death.
This was at the same hospital where, just 16 months earlier, I had arrived two hours after her birth and held her, while she was still swaddled.
In January 1992, Kate was in the hospital for nine days. During those nine days ~ when my brave and wonderful sister-in-law was newly pregnant and had the flu ~ we learned how to adminster shots and test Kate’s blood ~ on oranges. We also had to practice on each other, a task, I will admit, my younger brother (Kate’s father) especially enjoyed when it was my turn to be the subject. Kate’s room was overheated in that horrid hospital overheated way, but one of the most meaningful afternoons I have ever experienced was in that horridly overheated room, which I spent wearing a borrowed hospital surgeon’s top shirt (I had mistakenly worn a sweater), with Kate sleeping splayed across my chest, her tiny arm wrapped around my neck. My brother and sister-in-law were in diabetes classes, and no one wanted to leave her alone. That afternoon, our minister came by, and I was so grateful to see him. He offered us a prayer. Kate was so sick that she never even woke up during his quiet visit.
I needed more heavenly guidance and fortitude when I went to the hospital pharmacy to get all the medicine and supplies we would need for Kate. My brother had given me his credit card. I was one of perhaps 30 people waiting there. I was the only one who could pay for everything. I listened, and inwardly wept, as so many of the people waiting there (who had traveled by bus or foot) asked for one or two or three days of their medicine. Even then: What were we thinking? Why should these people have had to travel by bus and wait in line over and over again to get the medicine they needed to survive?
Kate will graduate from high school in May. She has already been accepted at college. This wonderful, beautiful, exceptional young woman has faced the day-to-day traumas of living with juvenile diabetes with courage and honor. So much courage. She has been stuck with needles more than 20,000 times now. She has never known a day that was not circumscribed by her disease: there is no escape from diabetes. She has suffered highs and lows; she has suffered seizures. She has been hospitalized more times than I can count or want to remember. On one day when she was in the 6th grade, she passed out in the corridor of her former school from a low and some of her fellow classmates stepped over her prone body before some others alerted the administration.
And all this time, she has remained hopeful, optimistic ~ and giving.
Four or so years ago, Kate’s best friend was diagnosed with cancer. Kate stood by her throughout her long ordeal with chemotherapy. She encouraged her and hoped with her. When Kate’s best friend lost all her hair, her parents bought her some pretty wigs. Later, when her hair started growing back in, Kate’s best friend’s parents encouraged her to stop wearing them. But she was a teenage girl, and she was embarrassed about having sparse short hair among friends with luxurious locks, and she could not bring herself to do it.
What did Kate do? She cut off all her own beautiful hair (and donated it to a charity that created wigs for children with cancer) so that her friend would not feel alone with short hair.
Here is a photo of Kate before she cut her hair off:
In a college essay Kate recently wrote (and asked me to read and comment on), she praised others for helping her and gave thanks for the luck she has enjoyed in having a wonderful family and good friends. That essay contained not one single complaint. I will admit to crying when I read it.
She is my heroine.
Back in 2001, when I was living in California, I was driving to Kate’s house when an announcement from President Bush came on the radio. It was his announcement that he was suspending federal support for further stem-cell research. I listened in shocked disbelief. I wondered how I would explain to my then 11-year-old niece that the 10,000 needles she had then already endured didn’t matter; that the potential this research had to deliver a cure for her didn‘t matter. That cells in a petri dish, slated for destruction, somehow mattered more than she did.
I didn’t know how to say: "Your President doesn’t care about you."
On January 20, 2009, I won’t have to say this any more. President-elect Obama has signaled that among his first acts as President will be a new Executive Order overturning President Bush’s Executive Order halting nearly all federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.
From our family to yours, President-elect Obama, thank you so very much. Thank you for giving Kate a chance. Thank you, and bless you. You have made hope a possibility for all of us again. And thank you, dear Kate, for keeping hope alive for me.
***********************************************************************
From A Siegel
In the diary, I'm A Siegel and I'm a Petro-holic,
Plan 9 claims to be a coal-aholic and offers tne numbers to prove it.
Feedback matters to an Energy Smart Future and blueocean lets us know how a Dad can help provide feedback on energy habits in a truly motivational way ... this is a GREAT idea that every household and office can try.
From marykk
Noting a shortage of, well, diary in a certain diary, Detroit Mark sums it all up.
From DemocraticLuntz
After I posted the fake Obama birth certificate, Bensdad mentions an important change in Obama's father's religion.
Mine.
TomP on the implicit message in President-Elect Barack Obama’s first Saturday You Tube address, in Muzikal203’s terrific diary.
blue jersey mom’s praise for shelter cats in YallaDog’s great diary, In Praise of Shelter Dogs.
A truly chilling thread including comments from Pithy Cherub and dangfrslo, on the horrifying situation in Southern California, in johnsonwax's superb SoCal Fires Liveblog.
Top Mojo (courtesy of brillig, before whom I curtsy)
Top 30 comments excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first comments and C&J:
1) One of the best rants I've read in some time by Parallax857 — 115
2) I'm sorry to learn about your sister. by sand805 — 67
3) WOW! by StuHunter — 66
4) My wife checked on this by Philpm — 65
5) People with ADHD don't fall for brainwashing by FishOutofWater — 64
6) A church that was so obsessive by anastasia p — 62
7) Good Morning from MN! by jetskreemr — 59
8) Too bad the Catholic Church by mjd in florida — 52
9) As long as... by penny8611 — 51
10) thanks, shirah by peace voter — 51
11) Live from The White House: Tower of Power!!! by The Knute — 50
12) It must be a generational thing. by blue jersey mom — 50
13) We don't see the flag-draped coffins, or the by 1BQ — 47
14) Thank you for writing this. by kate mckinnon — 47
15) A company by Dreaming of Better Days — 46
16) Good Morning, Gardeners :) by PhillyGal — 44
17) Oh my god by regis — 44
18) The problem goes all the way to the top by AustinCynic — 44
19) If taking Communion was performed in private -- by zkg — 44
20) Good Morning Gardeners by Pakalolo — 43
21) By this I mean, what would you by Asinus Asinum Fricat — 43
22) To establish contact with your sister: by llbear — 42
23) Mostly white flowers in central Florida by wayoutinthestix — 42
24) My FP. by ArtSchmart — 42
25) I am planting fruit trees by WedtoReason — 41
26) hehe! I have every intention of catnapping today; by PhillyGal — 41
27) My garden is all put away by Its any one guess — 41
28) Still not employed by Coldblue Steele — 41
29) Yeah, God, what an attention whore! by jenesq — 40
30) My pest problem by Frankenoid — 40
31) It would be a great place for a war hero by Kayakbiker — 40
32) rice, beans, seasonal veggies & fruits by zhimbo — 40
Top 30 comments with no exclusions:
1) tips by idahospud44 — 650
2) Tips for people making their own decisions. by teresahill — 478
3) Tipped and recced and by cinnamondog — 295
4) Tips for music on the White House lawn by Deoliver47 — 282
5) Tips for upgrading the government :o) by Muzikal203 — 238
6) This is a fight we need to engage in by shirah — 217
7) Saturday's here & I want some morning Joe! by Patch Adam — 202
8) Your thoughts? by Asinus Asinum Fricat — 167
9) T/J by Relevant Rhino — 137
10) Tips for cute chicks? by lineatus — 135
11) One of the best rants I've read in some time by Parallax857 — 115
12) Tips / Mojo: 14 Nov 08 by A Siegel — 106
13) Nut jar by occams hatchet — 95
14) Good morning all! by Frankenoid — 88
15) Tips for by TomP — 84
16) tip jar by teacherken — 80
17) Tips for tats... by blueyedace2 — 75
18) Information on evacuation centers, by johnsonwax — 75
19) Tips for Small Business Owners by yamanote — 71
20) Absolutely not. by Psylum — 68
21) I'm sorry to learn about your sister. by sand805 — 67
22) WOW! by StuHunter — 66
23) Tip Jar by Mumon — 65
24) My wife checked on this by Philpm — 65
25) People with ADHD don't fall for brainwashing by FishOutofWater — 64
26) TJ by PA mnon — 64
27) tip only if you VOTE! by The Troubadour — 64
28) Tips by YallaDog — 64
29) A church that was so obsessive by anastasia p — 62
30) Tip jar. by Joseph Hale — 62
Got a top comment? Send it to top comments at gmail dot com before 9:30 pm EST. Be sure to send your screen name so we can give up a proper hat-tip.