Angels among us

                                                          Angels among us

       My wife Mary and I are prone to stop at the nearby Panera Bread Company, at Coconut Point in Estero, Florida.  We enjoy a leisurely cup of coffee, accompanied by a tasty bagel, while sitting in the early morning sun of a glorious Florida morning. This is about as pleasant as it gets.

         I usually stake out an outside table, while Mary orders our food and gets us a cup of coffee. From outward appearances, it would appear that I am either lazy or chauvinistic. In reality, Mary is my legs, because mine don’t work so well anymore. She never complains, just takes care of us both. I have come to realize that I had been blessed with one of those magical creatures that we call “an angel among us.” I don’t know why I have been so fortunate, only that I am blessed in her care.

          Six years back I had been stricken with an auto immune disease called Inclusive Body Myositis. No one has ever heard of it, nor probably ever will. It is a junior league version of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. It has robbed me of the ability to walk more than a short distance and daily attempts to destroy muscle tissue in my arms and legs.

       Before this, Mary and I had walked four mile a day, several times a week, played golf a few times and even got in a bike ride. Still, after carrying the black cloud of the ALS diagnosis around for four months, we made it into the Lee County ALS lab. A wonderfully smart young Neurologist examined me, gave me a few tests and then said “You don’t have ALS. You have IBM.” We were ecstatic at the diagnosis. It meant that I had a much better chance of survival than with ALS.

        Dutifully, for the next six years, I have hit the gym for an hour at a time, three times a week. I was in a race to replace the muscle tissue in my arms and legs, that the disease was actively destroying. And, I was winning the battle. I still couldn’t walk much or play more than nine holes of golf. But I thought myself among the luckiest of men. For all around me were people in wheel chairs and other conveyances that they needed to survive. May the good Lord bless them all.

        You get philosophical when you are up against challenges. You have to deal with whatever ails you, suck it up and move onward. But, you can only do that much easier, if you have an angel walking along side of you. I am fortunate to have one, my dear wife Mary.

       I don’t know what the future will bring. None of us do. But it a heck of a lot easier with an angel at your side. Thanks Mary, for everything you do for me.

                                                      -30-

                                                   (492 words)

                                             Joseph  Xavier Martin