Talk About a Eureka Moment!
Submitted by susan on 2007, January 30 - 16:24.
It’s not every day that you open an e-mail that knocks your socks off! But last week, we received one that did just that, and more.
We often get thanks for our articles, readers telling us why a topic or profile touched their head or heart in some way, but this one—well, it literally makes something we printed a lifesaver.
Rather out of the blue, a woman caring for her parents and with health issues of her own read “A Eureka Moment,” by Debbie Newsham, published in our November/December 2006 issue. And not a moment too soon, for, as she explained to us, she had attempted suicide a few days before.
Debbie Newsham’s article (a winning essay in last year’s “Give A Caregiver a Break” essay contest) helped this caregiver “put many things in perspective.” She’s already taking action, she says, on the job and home front. As she puts it, we’re “rearranging our lives instead of fighting it,” adding that “A Eureka Moment” is “taped to my bathroom mirror to remind me every day.”
Our reaction here? “Wow!” We’re still shaking our heads in amazement and awe.
Debbie Newsham’s reaction? “To hear that another human being, somewhere in the world, read my words, was moved (and in such a positive dramatic fashion) is stunning to say the least. My greatest wish has been that my father’s illness would ultimately lead to a ‘greater good.’ I cannot believe that ‘this is it.' Those 500 little words that you and your magazine requested have profoundly changed at least two lives.”
“Wow!” we say again, to Debbie’s powerful words and wish—and this caregiver’s outlook so profoundly changed by them.
To read Debbie Newsham's "A Eureka Moment," click here.