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.
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