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Author—Public Speaker |
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Marybeth A. Traut |
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Welcome To Diabetes In The Family |
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To Contact Us: Marybeth A. Traut “Diabetes In The Family” P.O. Box 148 Girard, PA 16417 E-Mail: marybethtraut@marybethtraut.com
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Its’ Never too late to help others….
When you stop and pause you realize how you have been touched by so many people, by so many diseases. You, yourself, may not have had a particular disease, but it is almost a guarantee that someone you know and/or love has. So, I sat. I paused. I thought. My grandmother was diagnosed and eventually lost her battle with alzeihmers. It is a horrible disease that no one should ever have to endure and even harder to watch. My uncle recently died from Parkinson’s Disease. My cousin, Jack, also, lost his battle to the same horrible disease. I saw what the disease did to my uncle. Even as horrible as it was, he NEVER once complained and he lived with such dignity and grace. He was and always will be a wonderful memory for me. I have had several people in my family touched by cancer. I never got to meet my maternal grandmother for she had died before I was born due to cancer. I adored my great aunt, but lost her far too early because of cancer. There are so many others that I loved that I lost because of this disease. Diabetes robbed me of the two people I loved more than anyone else. I miss them every single day. I still pick up the phone to call them with exciting news. I still talk to them hoping they will answer. My brother and sister are both living with the disease today. There are so many other diseases that touch us. I wish I could support them all, personally. However, I can’t even support myself sometimes, but I try. Smile. So, as I stopped and paused, I wondered. What is it that I can do. What can I do to help...even if in a very small way? I love to design. I love to create. So, I began “Totes with Notes.” I am going to provide the totes each having a note—to either replace or add to either your greeting card or gift bag each having an encouraging word or thought or celebration. When you purchase those totes I will donate 10% of the cost of the tote to a charity. What charity do you ask? Well, that will be up to you. I will provide several different charities and you will tell me where you want your percent to go. Not only will I have the charities to support the above diseases, but I will include charities that support our four legged friends as well. I don’t know about you, but if not for my “Bailey” I would have been lost a long time ago. We need to care for those who have been forgotten, abused and/or neglected. They are all God’s creatures as well. I also, will continue to write and support the diabetes associations with the sale of our story, my book, “Diabetes In the Family.” We all have a story to share…..And we all need to share them. For whatever reason, but mostly to educate. I have written our story to share with you. Are you sharing your story with others? When someone is diagnosed with diabetes they let out a sigh of relief. Most often they are diagnosed after they have begun experiencing damage. So, they are experiencing some type of pain. They don’t know what the cause of that pain is, so they begin to imagine. Like most of us, the imagination is not always a good thing. So, questions begin to circle their thoughts, “Is it cancer?” “Is it my heart?” “Am I going to die?” When the results come in often times it is; “Whoosh, it is ONLY diabetes!” When they realize it is not cancer, it is not their heart, they rejoice. Which is a good thing, to a point. I saw it with my dad. I saw it with my mom. I don’t want to see it anymore. It is like an overly relaxed feeling. There are no changes. Their life goes on as before. I wish I could find a way to make others realize that they need to make changes from day one. I wish I could get people to understand that even the smallest changes would make the biggest difference. I wish I could make people see that by ignoring diabetes they are giving over all power to their disease. I want people to know what will happen, but I don’t want to scare them into even more ignorance. What I mean by that is this; if someone knows something bad is going to happen, they tend to pretend that it does not exist. If it does not exist, then it won’t happen. Have you ever seen a small child who does not want to see you or hear you? They close their eyes, plug their ears and tell themselves, I cannot see you, therefore you do not exist. I see too many people doing that with diabetes. If I pretend I don’t have diabetes, then in fact I don’t have diabetes. I WISH that it worked that way. However, we all know it does not work that way, unfortunately. So, I want you to read our story. I want you to share your story. I want the story about diabetes to be heard. Not just heard, but paid attention to. Can you help me? Can you tell me “HOW” I can start the process of spreading our story, your story? I wish our story was one that was all sugar and spice and everything nice, but I can’t say that, we all know it is not. Our story is one of pain and sorrow as well as laughter and joy, but it is also, one full of information and honesty as well. There is too much information about diabetes out there that kind of candy coats it all. I know it is so that people are willing to listen, but who is doing any good by that? If you don’t think it is going to do damage, do you pay more attention to it? If you think it only affects you and no one else, do you take it more seriously? I wish I could say you are right, but we all know it isn’t true. If I were to tell you that by reading our story you may for the first time realize that you are not the only one on the “Diabetes Ride” - would you read it? If I told you that after reading our story you would learn more about diabetes then you possibly knew, would you read it? If I told you that after reading our story that you may be forced to face your own story for the first time, would you pick up a copy? I don’t know...you read it and tell me... |