I was rereading a book by Dave Barry today while my wife was getting her hair done.
I had read “Lessons From Lucy” when it was first published in 2019. It was a sweetly poignant story about learning the simple joys of life from old dogs. Quite nice, but the real shocker was “One Last Lesson,” which was added to the manuscript at the last minute.
Two days before Barry and his wife were going to take their daughter Sophie to Duke University to start her college career, completely out of the blue, 18-year-old Sophie woke up paralyzed from the waist down.
What’s that you say?
It could have been worse?
Only if they had awakened to find her dead.
She had something called Traverse Myelitis, an autoimmune disorder in which a virus triggers her immune system which eventually attacks her spinal cord.
They learned very soon that about a third of those infected recover completely, another third have partial recovery and the final third are paralyzed for life.
Thankfully, Sophie was in the first third.
Four months or so after waking up paralyzed, she was able to resume her life and go off to college.
It has been a long time since I read anything that moved me as much. I would be absolutely devastated if anything happened to either of my children, although both of them are well into adulthood. In fact, my daughter Pauline has children of her own, three born to her and three more from her second marriage.
I remember her once saying that her absolute greatest fear in life was something happening to her children.
I can certainly understand that. I know people who had children die young and others who had children sexually molested. I don’t think they were ever the same.
I’m sure Barry and his wife would gladly have laid down their own lives if that was what it had taken to save Sophie. I know I would gladly end my life immediately if that was what it took save save the lives of my children or my grandchildren. Being a good parent is the proudest accomplishment of my life, and if it required a big finish, so be it.
Nothing else I have done will ever matter as much.