ALS Blog: fight the devil by being an "angel"

If you're like my mom, and stalk my posts on Facebook, you will have noticed that I have posted incessantly the last 2 days about joining the campaign to raise awareness and funds for the Western Pennsylvania Chapter of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

I think the last time I was part of a charity walk was Relay for Life. That was in high school and mainly because they asked me to sing. This walk, however, is more personal as a relative of my mom's, Mike Braden, is currently fighting ALS alongside his wife, daughter, sisters, and web community. I'm in the process of organizing a benefit show/art exhibit called "When the Night is Gone" along with my donation page, which tells a little more about the motivation to walk, organize the concert, and love this family.

In my 2nd installment today of others who live Beyond Purgatory, I will be talking about this family. We all recognize the heartache that someone feels when he or she is diagnosed with a debilitating disorder, let alone a degenerative disease. Such a disease can only prepare you for how your body will slowly decline. It can be a living death sentence.

But I forget to think about what the families must go through. Sheila has seen her precious husband use a cane, then be confined to a wheelchair, mumble his words, and then lose his ability to speak. His daughter sacrifices time with friends to stay at home and help around the house, and while she is mature for her years, laments that she needs time away from home too. But she encounters the discouragment that as her family may not understand her need for time away, her friend's don't understand her need to be at home. This disease seems to literally be a purgatory, a place between two realities: life and death.

But this family perseveres. They laugh. They pray. They are so thankful and encouraging to all who call on them. And as we seek to lift their spirits, they in tern effortlessly lift ours up as well.

September 10th, I will walk with my family as "Mike's Angels" in the Pittsburgh Walk to Defeat ALS. If you'd like to support us, come to the concert, make a donation on my page, rally with us in prayers. Join the angel band :)

one policeman, one car, and one $200 ticket

In Beyond Purgatory I try to relate stories of not settling for the status quo. However, I (unfortunately) realize that I rarely share stories of OTHERS who go beyond their call of duty or what is handed to them. Well, this is a real person. And this is his story.

Thursday morning is garbage morning on Kosciusko (my street; see picture above of how it looked during Snowmageddon 2010). The 100 or so residents who live in this "two way, one at a time" street are required to move their cars for the sake of our garbage men, fearless men who brave the smells and slopes of our humble roads. I've lived on this street for more than a year, and I know the drill. But usually I work in the morning and therefore can leave before the clock strikes 8am and I turn into a pumpkin. However, this was my week off. That, coupled with being sick for the last 3 days, resulted in me forgetting what day it was.

So I left my car on the street.

This Thursday morning, I awoke to the terrible sound of a truck backing up. Beep...beep...beep. That could have been my heart monitor. I jumped out of bed, hair a blaze, tie dye shirt unkempt, and rushed to the stairwell. In the window I saw him: our traffic cop, who had been pounding away at our door...all so I would not get the $200 ticket and towing fee.

Let me elaborate on the hurdles that this man crossed to save a poor young married couple from an unfortunate financial burden. The garbage men (with no mercy, but quite understandably) had argued from the start to call the ticketing police and have my car towed. A $200 fee. This policeman was actually our traffic cop, because construction is now taking up a full block and a half of our lower street where we usually park on garbage day. But he left his post to see if he could do something. Our neighbor happened to be outside, and assured the policeman that I was home because she saw our 2 bikes in the backyard. So the policemen rang the doorbell...9x. Little did he know that we had unplugged the doorbell because we had cooked a day prior (it usually has to be unplugged with only 2 outlets in the kitchen). So he resorted to knocking....HARD. But with an air conditioner and fan, the likelihood of us hearing someone knocking on the first floor door of our 2nd floor apartment is (and was) nadda. But he persisted, while the garbage men taunted him to give up and teach me a lesson. And then, when I did rush downstairs (wakened by the beeps, mind you, not the knocking), he was not rude or condescending at all, but almost as relieved as I was. And I was relieved.

I personally think this man went above the call of duty. Not in a "staring death in the face" way that we often associate with the term, but in a way that genuinely looked out for the residents of Pittsburgh (which I'm sad to say is not often the reputation we have of Pittsburgh cops, especially on the South Side). I am thankful, to him, to our neighbor, to the beeps, and to the Lord for seeing us in favor this morning. *sigh of relief*

And Chris just did the dishes. It's going to be a great day.