I have a friend and neighbor, Lori Hall Steele who is a fantastic journalist with over 3,000 articles to her credit. Eleven months ago she contracted what has now been diagnosed as Lou Gehrig’s disease (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS). A mutual friend had seen her in a wheelchair and asked me about it.
She is in Michigan and I am now in Los Angeles. So I e-mailed Lori right away asking what was going on. We had these terrific long e-mail-a-thons back and forth where she was energetically proactive in finding out what was wrong, why she had lost the feeling in her feet. That was last October.
Then the emails got shorter
Then they stopped altogether
We went to Michigan for the summer and saw our dear friend, by this time a quadriplegic. She sat in our yard, still upright in her chair and sipped a beer through a straw waiting for her lungs to re-inflate to contribute to the conversation in small, quiet bits.
By summer's end she was confined to a hospital bed in her dining room, on a breathing machine.
This is my friend. A 44 year old divorced mom of a 7 year old boy. This could be any one of us.
Now because she can no longer write / work and her insurance carrier dropped her, ya know, because she actually needed their services, she is losing the house she has lived in for many many years.
Lori wrote this 2 page essay 3 years ago, when she was in perfect health. It was published in The Washington Post this past April, while the steady and rapid decline in her condition continued. It's chilling to read it now. Now that she is in Hospice care. Coincidence or did her son somehow know there was something brewing.
Please visit Lori's Blog and website which were set up to offer information about her plight and save her house from foreclosure. Donate if you can. If not, that's ok too. Just send her healing thoughts and help spread the word about her situation.
Hug your kids.
Call your parents to tell them that you love them.
2 comments:
November 19, 2008.
Today Lori Hall Steele passed on to continue her destiny after a long hard battle with ALS/Lyme Disease. She left her smile and her laughter imprinted in the hearts of the people that love her and those who randomly met her throughout life. Her friends Kristin/Jane were able to start a grassroots movement that raised over 70k to help pay for her medical care and to save her home for her greatest legacy her son Jackson. Remember today to share her smile and laughter with those you might meet and with those whom you love in tribute to all the laughter and smiles Lori so freely gave everyday.
Thank you Beth. It's a sad day when we lose such a compassionate, giving soul as Lori. It's a blessing for her that she did not hang on indefinitely in the condition she was in.
Here's to you Lori. A friend to be remembered.
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