Charleston, 1990
My youngest daughter was diagnosed with type one diabetes when she was a very little girl. Type one is not what one is accustomed to when hearing about diabetes. The body has no capability of producing insulin, which is necessary to stay alive, which means shots every day for the rest of one’s life and close monitoring of blood sugar levels throughout every day. Nina has been masterful at reading her body for signs of lows and highs and regulating her food and exercise routines from a young age….and sometime mistakes happened.
On the first day of her freshman year of high school, a new school, a uniform, a new chapter for all of us because we had just moved a-g-a-i-n….and as a single mother, my cups were running over. The girls were at an age where they preferred to pop their own bagels in the toaster and run out the door in the morning. As this was before the age of cell phones, I had figured out a beeper system and codes on the beepers for my girls and myself, should anything be amiss with Nina…or anything else…best laid plans of mice and men….a call from the police that nearly upended me.
Backing up.
Nina had apparently given herself her shot in the morning, but in the scramble of getting out the door had forgotten to eat breakfast. Her diabetic low got to work almost immediately, and as she headed for school, she became disoriented, took off her shoes, wandered here and there, shirt untucked and looking ragged, ended up at the Dock Street Theater and collapsed on the front steps. Someone reported her and a policeman arrived. He thought that she was on drugs, and was in the process of taking her to the police station, when a woman who lived across the street from the Dock Street, looked out her window, recognized Nina (we three were active in productions), and she ran out…shared what she knew…I was called. Nina was EMS’d to the hospital, and I met her there as she was arriving.
So….why here now?
A few reminders:
Angels are everywhere.
The human body is delicate.
One needs to be sensitive and open to possibilities, rather than jump to conclusions, always.
And….the best laid plans can go awry….ground yourself.