FEB. 94- MY FIRST OUTING, AND THE MAYNES!!! [edit]

It was my first week of being in Ft. Worth as I began to wonder who I would meet, and what new places I would venture to find. When all of the sudden I received a phone call from a lady named Cindy who had two children with FA!! She also headed the support group for people with FA in the area. She had gotten my number from the MDA in Ft. Worth. She was very excited to meet me and to have me meet her daughter for she was about 4 1/2 years younger than me! Dealing with the rarity of FA it is hard to find someone around your age, and we lived really close to each other. She asked me if I would like to join them at the Fort Worth Stockshow that weekend. I was excited. My first weekend in Ft. Worth and I already had plans! Cindy told me that her daughter was having a hard time accepting FA. Like me, she was diagnosed around the same time I was and was not in a wheelchair at the time. Cindy's youngest son Adam also had FA. He was still physically active. When they came to pick me up they all came inside to meet my family. They were all so nice and I instantly fell in love with them. As we got to the Stock show we ended up meeting (Cindy called him to come) another gentleman with FA there! His name was Frank and I will share about him in the next post. Meeting three FA'ers in one night, I could hardly believe it!

Below is a pic of the Mayne fam and I. They also have an older daughter that is not pictured. She was not around alot. I did know her though. This pic was not taken the day of the Stockshow.

The Maynes had become my second family. My mom, dad, and I started attending the support group meetings, and then I gained even more friends w/ FA!! I was always spending time at their house. Sara and I began spending quit bit of time together. She reminded me a lot of myself and we could totally relate to one another. I would look at her and sometimes get sad because I knew the road ahead of her would be rough for my FA was more progressed. Although she was more of an introvert she had no problem with the boys!!! Cindy told me once that Sara said she felt like I was her sister. That brought tears to my eyes. Sara, Cindy, and I were always spending time together whether it would be shopping, going out to eat, or going to the movies. One day we surprised Sara at the movies by watching "With Honors" starring Brandon Fraiser. He could butter her popcorn anytime! It is a really good movie if you have not seen it I do recommend it! We shared so many laughs together. Sara was attending a Christian High School about five minutes away from my house. I had gone over there on several occasions to have lunch with her. I even sat in on a couple of her classes. She was so much smarter than I was for she was taking trigonometry which I never even took in College!! Not too long after she turned 16 she began driving. She also used hand controls like I did. One night we decided that we were bored and would take a trip to Blockbuster to rent a movie. Sarah drove her car and I sat in the passenger seat. She somehow managed to shove my wheelchair into the passenger side back seat, and then go around to the driver's side back seat to put her walker in there. Looking back on it all I just shake my head! When she graduated from high school she also walked across the stage to get her diploma! I cried, I was so happy. Soon after that she also became wheelchair-bound. Cindy passed away after a long battle with cancer in 1999:( That was very hard. Sara also graduated from college With Honors! She got married, which she tells me is still hard to believe that someone could love her because of her FA. (I definitely understand, as a single woman I struggle with that about any man all the time.) She always wanted two children and that is what she got. I was around when the first one was little. I do not know how she managed to care for him due to her FA while her husband worked, but she did it! There was nothing easy about it. I know she has a helper with the second one. They are both really cute kids. During one of our conversations Sarah and I said how cool it would be to be able to progress backwards with FA! There is still one more thing that I will share with you in a couple of posts that I did with them!

I am still close with Sara, although she now lives in Georgia with her husband and two children. Her children are showing no signs of FA at this point! The pic on the right was taken in Feb. of this year as they were on the train and headed to the circus:) This is one of my fave pics of them. Nathan is on the right and will be heading off to kindergarten in the Fall. I cannot believe it! He is so smart. Annie is 2, need I say more! She is a very content little girl. Sara’s brother Adam is attending college. Their dad is now remarried to a wonderful woman and doing well!

Thank you for taking the time to read, Miss S