This week, Rapid Growth welcomes a new sponsor. And unlike other sponsors, this one is personal to me. It didn't start out that way.
Like everybody else, I notice these tiny blocks of information on websites and have come to realize they will take us to other places with the click of a mouse. (Click on a few of them, please.)
Those links are placed on sites like ours to introduce businesses or people to us, not necessarily remind us of our past.
Today, as I see Mary Free Bed's link appear on our site, I realize that not all of Rapid Growth's partners have a shared history with me.
Memory can be a tricky road to travel, especially when the path is one you'd rather not revisit. Sometimes, though, you cannot fight a recollection when triggered by innocent things like the appearance of a new link on a website.
In September 2006, I was going about my daily life when someone else's life intersected with mine in one of the most painful and violent ways -- a serious car accident. The intersection between my life and theirs would take me to the medical hill, where my trauma was treated for a week.
Before I could transfer home, I had to seek additional help from a local medical rehab facility that would literally teach me, among many things, how to stand on my own two feet again.
While these first steps would finally come after spending four months in a wheelchair with plenty of time resting on the couch, it was the people at Mary Free Bed rehab facility who taught me so much more than just how to gain freedom within my form.
While I was there, much like I am today, I could rarely sit still, and I would often venture throughout the facility aided by the chair I was given.
On my journeys, I would treat myself to a Hawaiian Punch slushie after my physical therapy, or roll through the hallways viewing the vast collection of artwork collected by Mary Free Bed from people with disabilities. As you can imagine, the artist in me was thrilled to see such a commitment to the celebration of the creative spirit.
During one of my rolling explorations, I discovered a wall filled with testimonials from members of our community who shared insight from their vantage point. I was completely moved and inspired as I read comments that later, I would call upon when I felt at my lowest.
One person whose comments inspired me was Steven Johnson, who wrote, "Before my accident there were 10,000 things I was able to do. Now there are 8,000. I can either concentrate on the 2,000 I am no longer able to do, or accept the opportunities and challenges in the 8,000 things waiting for me to accomplish."
Wow. A light went on in my head. In the process of my rehab, I was learning much about my life post-accident, but it never settled in that a negative could become a positive once you learn how to position your mind.
So I became a sponge, absorbing as much information as I could from the facility that had opened my eyes to a whole new world.
Mary Free Bed is a rehabilitation hospital with a rich history in our region with one of the best capital campaign fundraising stories I think I have ever heard in my life.
Grand Rapids was a place where women advanced in our local society to create amazing medical facilities like Mary Free Bed, organized St. Cecelia's Music Arts and prompted the creation of the first American Civil War monument honoring the role women performed in that historic event. Mary Free Bed was one of many firsts in our region where women in a very male-dominated world were doing great things for people in our community.
In preparation for my editorial this week, I returned to Mary Free Bed to wander the hallways and revisit the place where I learned so much about how to live my life under a new set of terms.
Mary Free Bed is a facility where patients are in transition on the way to becoming something new. It is not about what you cannot do, as Steven Johnson and so many others have pointed out, but rather, it's about finding what great things are waiting for us to discover.
I guess I am not the only person who returns for a visit. Many other patients of this facility return if only just to hug one of the many amazing staff members who helped make their time there a positive one.
I did meet my PT person to give her a big hug and thank her again for her help and also for answering the thousands of questions I remember bombarding her with during my time there.
Surveying the space now four years later, I noticed something I had not really focused in on before. Unlike those private moments of TV drama where the only people in the room are you and your PT, at Mary Free Bed you see everyone who is at various stages of their recovery, making their way toward home.
Mary Free Bed is not the destination or final place for those who are there, but a place for transitioning from your trauma to your next destination. But even more important than that, it is a place where transformation of the spirit can occur by knowing you are not alone. Surveying the open floor plan of their PT wing, you see other people working toward their next level.
Looking in the eyes of fellow patients, we all knew that something traumatic had happened, bringing us together to share this moment in time. We also knew we were changing with every moment; we were there as we progressed toward a new life where "the 8,000 things" we would go on to accomplish would be amazing.
While I may not be in a chair or move about with the aid of crutches anymore, chronic pain still gnaws at my brain, forcing me to remember that worst day over and over each day.
It is comforting though to know that we have places like Mary Free Bed, where dedicated people continue to address the needs of the individual, while reminding us that our lives are not over -- just in transition.
It balances out the dark times with a bit of light knowing we are not alone. If you have been through Mary Free Bed or know someone who has, I encourage you to take a moment and read these stories of hope. You and I are not alone. It is this knowledge and the tactics instilled while there that make the days for some many a bit brighter.
Mary Free Bed has created
Hope Restored, a truly wonderful website where patients can share their personal stories. I hope you will stop by and read a few of them.
The Future Needs All of Us (to acknowledge our past)
Tommy Allen, Lifestyle Editor
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