This year Valentine's Day arrived with not one but TWO grown-up weekend obligations back to back. We had a charity fundraiser and a Valentine's Day Ball two consecutive Saturday nights. The usual routine of trying to line up child care while figuring out what in my closet is fancy enough to justify being worn to a "ball" began and we set off for our adult evenings filled with wedding food, good drink and good friends.
The fundraiser was to support friends of ours who are close with a family whose son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (http://www.hopeforgus.org/home). This being my first charity event ever (I'm pretty sure) I had little idea what to expect. It ended up being a great night and such a fun deviation from the norm. It felt a smidge like a Republican fundraising event, which I have also never been to, but if I did, this is what I would picture it being like.
People were all dressed up milling about munching on "heavy apps" while trying to strike up interesting conversation with fellow party-goers. These types of things always remind me there are all these other worlds happening on Saturday nights while I'm at home putting a baby to bed in my Lanz of Salzburg nightgown...but I digress. Patrick and I dutifully bid on some silent auction items (two of which we won!) and chatted with the friends who had invited us. After a couple of hours Gus's mother spoke to the crowd about her family, her son and the reason they started the foundation to try to find a cure for DMD.
She spoke about overcoming her own cancer just in time to find our her healthy, happy baby boy had the most severe form of Muscular Dystrophy and would likely not walk past the age of 10 or 12. This is a mother of three children who works full-time, fought cancer and has STARTED A FOUNDATION for her sick child. As I listened to her I was not only amazed by her commitment to getting her son well, but by the matter-of-fact and often times humorous way she was able to explain the horror and heartbreak her family has endured since the diagnosis.
In my mind I kept thinking that if women like this exist in the world then there must not only be Hope for Gus, but there must also be hope for us. This mother was a reminder to me that the horrible display of human nature I had witnessed on the flight home from my business trip that week was not an indication of the direction this world is heading. There are people like this mom who get up every day and fight the big fight for their family, their children and ultimately society as a whole since we all benefit from people with this type of determination.
I left feeling completely humbled by the experience. I felt grateful to have to children who outside of a little asthma and some bad ear infections have been mostly healthy. I left feeling guilty for bitching about housework, parenting and being a full-time career woman. Mostly however, I left feeling lighter just knowing that after what I had seen that night there are people devoting their lives to making the planet a safer, healthier and better place for everyone to live - and that there is absolutely hope for her son Gus...and for the rest of Us as well.
