A friend, my physical therapist wrote the following after reading one of my current articles on Towson Patch. “Your articles encourage people to make the changes and the effort that is needed to create their life that they hope for. They are all written with such good humor and enjoyment. It is a privilege to be part of that.”

I mentioned in the article as to her being my competent and kind physical therapist, who is helping me and encouraging me to go forward and to do all the exercises in the hour, sometimes difficult and tiresome exercises, she makes me perform. I do complain and kvetch (whine) when they seem hard and difficult to accomplish. After she takes no for an answer and I try to sneak out, she does not let me leave or go. She makes me do them and I come back for more, twice a week. With her help and my effort, I will accomplish my goal to walk better and to dance once again and hopefully, maybe by the holiday season in December.

This journey of mine is done by people every day with other tasks they have to conquer to get better, whether it from a stroke, an operation, an accident or old age infirmities. If you want to survive and live a long life, you have to do what you have to do as the old saying goes. I see all ages of people in the physical therapy facility; I go to twice a week. They are doing it for having been in an accident, other health reasons and some probably like me, to walk better with an Arthritic bad knee.

We all there trying, smiling, doing and exercising on various pieces of equipment made especially for what we are attempting. I had a neighbor girl about thirty years ago attend physical therapy school and when she came home to visit, her parents were so proud of the career she had chosen. I was about forty something then and I really did not know much about what PT did for a person. When I needed it, after an auto accident, I saw mainly stroke patients and a few accident patients in that facility. Here at Cheryl’s office, I see all types, men, women, older folks and a few young women and men. We are here for the same journey. We want to succeed and we are hopeful that we will be back to our old selves.

You see Ann Romney speaking about her husband and she herself has Multiple Sclerosis since 1992. When I was a young girl, I had a cousin named Sarah Kornblatt Weinstein. She was my first cousin and she was my dad’s niece and her mom was my dad’s older sister. So she was about fifteen years older than me. She was diagnosed with MS way back then in about 1946 and not a lot was known then about the illness. She wrote an article in a magazine called Pageant; it was similar to the Readers Digest at that time. She wrote “that when you sometimes see a person who staggers, it does not mean they are drunk, could be she has MS and this was part of her illness.” She said “do not judge someone immediately from what you see them doing. They could have MS that causes this or something else; they need not have been drinking.” They say that Ann Romney was bedridden at one time and to see her tonight on national TV, you cannot believe it. She stood tall and straight and was wearing high heeled shoes. This goes to show what courage and tenacity and mental toughness she endured and she is a victorious person.

We must all gather any strength we can find and take charge of our life and especially if there is an illness such as Mrs. Romney has, an aching terrible knee, other diseases and even psychological problems, and gain stamina and have the desire to get better and to be successful in doing so.

My friend Melinda Press in Tampa, Florida is a survivor and through it all, she smiles, is happy to be alive and thinks that every day is a beautiful day to be explored, to be euphoric and she is excited about its newness and the wonderful things that can happen at any time. There is a saying (you all know I sure do love these sayings) “spring always brings on a curious euphoria.” Well, I say, spring, summer, fall and winter do the same and if you have that special courage to go forth, no matter what tries to stand in your way; stand tall and be full of anticipation of all the good things coming your way real soon. Each day is a blessing and even on the days that seemingly are extra-long because of work, illness, sadness, boredom, they are still full of high hopes and happy moments.

As Cheryl Conrad said about my articles, we have to make the changes and effort needed to create the life we want, regardless of our NOW AGE.

Our new journey begins right now, the now is here and so are we.