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It
was another three years before August 6th was brought to my attention again. Remember the
flu we had on our honeymoon? Grant took about 6 weeks to fully recover from it. I
never did. Well I did, but by the time I was over it we knew something else was
terribly wrong. A year or so later, after being unsuccessfully treated for suspected
depression, I was diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, ME for short, a variation of
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Because the most obvious symptom is fatigue, many
uninformed (or just plain arrogant) doctors cannot see past the possibility of depression.
I say arrogant, because there are still doctors who refuse to admit the illness
exists. Don't let me get onto that subject, please! I just want to say.... No,
leave it. It's not worth the effort. Perhaps another day, another website.
Suffice to say, I
have been sick ever since. Last year, 1999, I was sitting in the garden one day and
the wisteria caught my attention. It was just a tangle of dry twigs, and it crossed my
mind that I felt a bit like that. The heartening thought was that one day it would
be covered with new green growth, and maybe, just maybe I would, too - one day...
I wasn't sure, but
I idly wondered if God might have put that thought in my mind. It prompted me to
pray and ask God if He wanted to encourage me in any way about when I would be getting
better. Immediately, He reminded me of August 6th. Could it be true. Something
told me it was Him, but how could I be sure?
There's a bit more
to this story but I'll just cut straight to the fun bit for now...
Being a bit of a
blabber mouth when it comes to exciting things, I must have accidentally let Bianca-Rose
overhear that I believed I was getting better soon. Grant had a parent from school
come up to him and say something about, "wasn't it good news about Bev", so we
realised Bianca-Rose had been talking! I knew I had to do something fast. It's
one thing to have my ideas and see what happens, but I didn't want Bianca-Rose getting
strange ideas about God. I had to be sure. And now I needed to do some damage
control. I prayed that God would help me talk about it to Bianca-Rose and
Jessie,too, for that matter, in a way that would help, not hinder, their faith and their
stability as children growing up in a confusing world. He didn't disappoint me!
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