Skip to main contentThis girl, there's something about her. She's carrying a fruit platter to a party, to a location she's unfamiliar with. And I completely screw it up.
I'm heading east on Fremont, jig left when I should have jigged right, and end up circling Rocky Butte. Which is, ahh, rather remote. I apologize profusely, but she just laughs it off, which I soon realize is indicative of her general attitude toward life. And it gives us more time to talk. And man...this girl makes my attitude to my back problems and depression and weight gain seem incredibly petty.
We start by saying that she doesn't drink much, and neither do I. Caffeine is her drug of choice, as is true of me. But then her reasons for such abstinent behavior begin to come out. She has lupus, which is a serious auto-immune disorder; it can cause serious disability and kill you in the end.
A drunk driver hit her and her mother. Her mother was killed; my passenger was told that with the injuries and the lupus, she'd never walk right again. She now runs marathons. Her attitude toward her illness, her injuries, her accident is both so matter-of-fact and utterly inspiring that I'm glad I got us so horribly lost in order to learn the lesson she taught me.
There's always somebody who has it worse than you. And they may just be handling it better.
WWeek 2015