Member-only story
Have you ever been thankful for being sick?
I’ve had major health challenges in my lifetime.
In 2008 I was given 6 months to live. You would think that would be enough to frighten me. I refused to accept my diagnosis. Even though the doctors said there was no cure for my heart condition. When I wrote my first memoir LOVE the Beat Goes On, I talked about this journey and the things I did to overcome this very terrifying time in my life. But nothing prepared me for the last six months.
I will admit I never understood addiction.
I lived with it when I was younger because my father was an alcoholic. Both my parents smoked. I was too young to remember if Dad was always that way, but I asked mom once and she said he came home from WW2 with a drinking problem. Fights erupted all the time. He was impossible to live with during my teenage years — and I was a good girl! But I learned my lessons. Throughout my life I never smoked and I have no taste for alcohol.
I almost died giving birth to my first son.
I required several blood transfusions and spent the night in intensive care. But all those frightening experiences disappeared when I held my son in my arms for the first time. The doctors warned me it would be very dangerous to have another child. Less than a year later, I got pregnant again — on purpose. I wanted my older boy to have a sibling.
