It’s impossible to look at someone from the outside and know what they have been through or understand what they are facing in life.
Our speech, our movement, our breathing are all things that are regularly taken away from Abbie through her seizures, and often she wakes up surrounded by people she doesn’t know all trying desperately to get her to restart those ‘monumental structures’ that her day-to-day life sits on.
In my interview with her she describes her illness like having a front room and a back room; during a seizure everything gets thrown into the back room in a massive jumble. When she comes round she has to sort through the jumble and bring those items through a connecting doorway to the front room one at a time… breathing, eyesight, hearing, movement, memories. And sometimes things get left behind.
I think Abbie and Dave are very brave. They face uncertainty on a regular basis and they’ve had to work at building safety nets around their routines. They find joy and celebration in moments that many of us don’t give a second thought.
We should never take for granted the small things, as they are the foundations on which our lives are built. We should also never make a judgement about another person based on what we see, and that’s why taking the time to share our stories and hear others is so important.
Life is precious - practice gratitude for the small things.