Little does Tom F. know...

Little does Tom F. know that I have Fibromyalgia.  Little does Tom F. know that he literally saved my life today.

Looks are deceiving.  Everyone hurts, everyone is dealing with their own demons.  Be kind, you never know how it will change the world.

Although it was fun for some, it meant a whole lot of extra pain for me; we had a very, very white Christmas.  We got a lot of snow this last week.  It dumped for days.  I have been doing very well at keeping the driveway clear, too.  Let me say this again, when I "shovel" the driveway, I have to use a broom.  We're college kids with four small kids, a snow shovel is kind of a luxury when you're this poor.  My husband works from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.  I am the obvious choice as the snow shovel-er.  Why shovel at all when you have a debilitating, painful disease?  It's in our contract with our landlord that if we don't keep the driveway free of snow, they'll pay someone else to do it, and charge us for it.  Did I mention we're too poor for a snow shovel?  Accruing extra charges is out of the question, I HAVE to sweep the driveway.

Hubby lets me sleep in on Saturday's, and I let him take an afternoon nap.  I went to the kitchen, opened my curtains to see the sun shinning.  Thought number one: "The sun is shinning!!!!  Glorious, sun, oh how I've missed you!"  Second thought: "Curse you sunshine!  The snow's melting, that means I have to take advantage of the sunshine and go shovel the snow now."  The kids were entertained with the tv while hubby was sleeping, so I went out to start my "sweeping."  This is excruciatingly painful.  Shoveling snow hurts the best of us.  Shoveling snow will especially hurt the worst of us.  I saw the guy across the street shoveling snow off a driveway and thought, "it must be so nice to have a snow shovel right about now."  I kept peeking up at him to see how he was coming along with his driveway.  Almost done, and his driveway was looking pretty clean.  When snow is packed, you're not gonna get far with a broom.  I was using the tip of my boot to break the packed snow, then swept it off.  Excruciatingly painful, physically, and as far as time was concerned.  He finished his driveway, and again I thought, "you're so lucky, I still have at least two hours left of this."  I had been at it for about an hour already when he came over and was putting his shovel into the back of his car across the street, right by my house.  "Have you been using a broom to shovel your snow?"  "Yeah, that's what I've been using all winter.  My husband just graduated from school, we have four small kids, so a snow shovel is kind of a luxury."  "I so get that.  My wife and I have six kids, we struggled in school, too."  He immediately pulled his shovel back out of his car, and began to shovel my driveway.  "You don't have to do that" I tried to tell him, "your back must be killing you from doing that one."  "It's ok."  I knew he didn't live at the house across the street, we see so many different people coming and going from that house.  "Are you related to these people?"  I asked, pointing at the house.  "No, she's a single lady, we all (meaning the neighborhood) chip in to help her out."  He went over to her house to shovel her snow, now he's over here doing mine.  I thought he would stay just for a little while to help me get the hard-packed snow off, then leave the rest for me.  He just came from doing the other house, I wasn't expecting anything, let alone a lot.  No, he stayed and helped me finish the rest of it.  He asked me about my kids, I told him I have two of each, he has three of each.  He told me it's hard having young kids, but it does get better when they leave the house.  :)  His wife called, wanted to know where the groceries were.  He told her, then went right back to shoveling my driveway.  Once he finished, he apologized he couldn't do more, asked me my name, told me his, then he told me if there was ever anything I needed, I could call him.  I'm young, I'm very young.  I'm skinny, I look healthy.  To any beholder, I am a fit, young, healthy, energetic person.  Little do they know my body is secretly eighty years old.  Little do they know my body is plagued with disease, and wracked with pain.  Little did Tom F. know he saved my life today.  Little does Tom F. know that my husband and I have been working the last few years running a chiropractors office.  Little does Tom F. know he's going to get $350 dollars worth of chiropractic work for free.  Little does Tom F. know that he'll also get a plate of cookies and a thank you note.

Tom F. is about to know that he saved my life today.  That I have a disease that causes me extreme pain.  I sit here, drugged out, icing my back, heating my knees, grateful, so very grateful, that Tom F. saved me hours out in the cold, hours that would have made this disease hurt even more.