Different levels of achievement

Although the weather today was miserable and wet (can't use the word ‘dreich’ too many times in one week), today was a very uplifting day.

For a start, I was able to put on my own socks! Not that I normally put on anyone else’s socks you understand, but I could bend my back enough to be able to reach down to my toes and pull upwards! I’m still aware of things not being quite right in my back but I definitely felt an improvement, so fingers still firmly crossed that this will continue to increase over the next few days!

Once I’d managed to dress myself, my neighbours and I went into town for a fundraising luncheon. Several of my neighbours help out with a local, Houston charity called Kids’ Meals. The mission of Kids’ Meals is to end hunger among preschool children. They provide a daily home-delivery of 1400 healthy lunches to children under the age of five, who live in poverty.

There were several speakers at the event, two of whom really stood out for me. Ruth Burrell, the lady who started the charity a long time ago; a strong, driven, engaging, funny and extremely caring woman, who I think would have made a success of anything she might have turned her mind to. Sean Tuohy, the guest speaker; if you’ve seen or read “The Blind Side” (the movie won Sandra Bullock an Oscar), he is the real-life adoptive father of Michael Oher, who as a young teenager, went from homeless poverty to being adopted by the Tuohy family and becoming a highly-educated, top American football player. Sean Tuohy is a very entertaining speaker, an extremely successful businessman/millionaire, married to another very strong woman (played by Sandra Bullock) and part of a family who, with barely a second thought, took a complete stranger, Michael Oher, into their home and lives.

Both of these people were very inspirational, highlighting what we can do to help to ease child-poverty in this and other countries, even if it's just making a donation to a children's charity. They made the event really interesting and very uplifting.