In the continued effort to spend quality time with my own family since I have so much more time to do so lately, yesterday my husband and I took our sons to see the movie Overcomer. It’s a great movie with a fantastic message. In part, the storyline follows a young woman in high school who is a cross country runner…with asthma.
I first saw this movie on August 29th with a bunch of friends, on a Tuesday morning while Mitzi was still at home. I loved it, but was almost kind of disappointed with the movie’s huge emphasis on whether this young woman would not just do her best, but actually win the race at the end of the story. Granted, they had come up with a unique way for her to be coached through every difficult situation in order to encourage her when the race would be toughest. Now I’ve never been a competitive person (…my husband would prefer I interject the following two words as clarification) “about sports.” I’m not a win/lose person so much as a have-fun-enjoying-time-with-friends person. I guess that’s why it irked me watching this girl run her heart out even though she had asthma attacking her all the way to the finish line. Why didn’t she just stop when it was killing her to go on? Why wasn’t it good enough to just say she ran and did her best? Who cares if she got the medal?
Almost a month to the day since seeing the movie the first time, we held Mitzi’s Celebration of Life service. In that month, I had the privilege of walking with my friend all the way to as close to the Finish Line as I was allowed to go by the confines of my own life. I realized that morning that finishing the race really was important, no matter the hardship of making it to the end.
To be totally transparent, there were so many days over the past 3 years that I would be driving home from a day with Mitzi, which often took about an hour and a half in traffic, and my mind would be doing a very convincing job of telling my heart that I could not do this anymore. It was too much stress on my health, on my marriage, my children and family, on our finances, on my friendships, on my faith even, and especially on my heart.
Somehow, the alarm would go off the next morning and my cup would not be as empty as it had been the night before. I’d think of my sweet friend and the assignment I knew had come from the boss in the highest “Home Office.” I’d grab my protein shake, get back in the car to drive another hour+ to get the huge hug that would be waiting for me at the front door. It’s so easy to let your head convince your heart that the race course through Alzheimer’s roughest and toughest terrain is impossible to finish. It’s not. And there is no shame in needing some extra coaching help along the way.
Among the souvenirs I got from Gary was Mitzi’s medal from the Victory 5k that we did together back in 2017 at my church. It’s the only race medal I’ve ever earned. Frankly, I only did it for her because I knew it was one we could do at her pace (ummm, and mine!). I took a picture of the two of us before the race began and right after we got our medals for finishing it. There isn’t a huge external difference (minus how red my face got), but it changed something in me. I made a bargain with God that day that I would do my best with this assignment I had been gifted, but would He please give me the strength to keep walking with my friend until she could get her medal.
I am so grateful that God was faithful in giving me the strength I wasn’t sure I would have and that Gary allowed me that honor of being there with him as Mitzi made it across that Finish Line 2 weeks ago today…????
