Many Thanks

  • Mom - Mom, there aren’t even words, and anything I say won’t do you justice, but thank you for being my mom. Thank you for washing my hair after brain surgery (what little I had left), thank you for once again helping me shower after my ribs were removed. Thank you for all of the times you played with my hair to soothe my pain and calm me down. Thank you for being the greatest example of sacrificial love I know, apart from Christ. I’m a better person for having been your daughter, and this is a better project from your input.

  • Dad - I’m going to cry just writing this. Thank you for the countless prayers you’ve prayed for me over my lifetime and especially during these last six years. Thank you for all of the times you answered the phone and spoke wisdom over every call, for keeping my perspective fixed on God, and for being the biblical definition of a godly dad. Thank you for teaching me how to have healthy conflict and how to be assertive. Thank you for reading this project and for encouraging me to continue in it even when you didn’t understand or disagreed. This is wholly insufficient, but just know it all comes down to this - thank you for being my dad.

  • Dixon - Man, Dixon, I can’t even capture my appreciation for you. I’m glad I changed and I’m glad we’re friends. You’re the most kind-hearted and generous person I know. Thank you for all of the trips you made for me to get me food and for all the times you brought me a Vanilla Coke and a pack of Reese, just because you were thinking of me on your way home from work. I’m glad God brought us back home for a little while once again so that we can spend this time together. I’m going to be sad when the “I’ll buy, you fly” days are over. I’ll always be your #1 fan, so please release your EP already.

  • Erika - Erika, I can’t thank you enough. Thank you for always opening your home to me as a safe place to land and heal. Thank you for reading this and for always encouraging me. You’re a phenomenal sister and friend. In the immortal words of The Wedding Date, “you’re my half-sister but I whole love you.”

  • Lou - Thank you for encouraging me in my writing and during my medical difficulties. Thank you for teaching me the word “itinerary” at Disney World almost two decades ago, and please next teach me how to spell it without spell-check. I’m grateful you’re my brother-in-law and glad we’re family.

  • Erin - Erin, you were the first friend I made after I had surgery and one that will last both of our lifetimes. You’ve walked through more of my medical stuff with me than anyone other than family and even driven with me across the state to doctor’s appointments. Your friendship is so incredibly special to me and one I rest in when I’m too weak to walk alone. Thank you.

  • Haley - Haley, I can’t even describe in a book, much less a few words what your friendship has meant to me. Thank you for encouraging and growing and caring with me. Thank you for all of the healing happy hour talks, the shared tears over shared fries, and the shared healthy habits after the first two practices lead to some unhealthy weight gain. Thank you for doing life with me, through moments of beauty and pain, as a wonderful friend and sister in Christ.

  • Kristen - Kristen, thank you for being someone I know I can call when I don’t know who I can call. Thank you for your care packages, for your wonderful friendship, and for helping me see the beauty in my life and in the spaces around me. And thank you for giving me flowers and tools to create beauty where it’s missing during times where I’m needing to see it most.

  • Kandace - Thank you for seeing me as a whole person, for having such wonderful responses to my medical uniqueness, and for walking with me along the way. Thank you for being my friend and for seeing me for who I am.

  • Anna Stratton - Anna, I literally wouldn’t be here without you. Thank you for answering the phone on your day off and working with me for so many years straight. Thank you for being submitted and obedient to God’s voice and for being led by the Holy Spirit. I cannot adequately express my gratitude and appreciation for all you’ve done for me. Just know that you were one of the primary tools God used in healing me from these traumas. Thank you.

  • Joan Erickson - Ms. Joan, thank you for opening the door and answering my question, “does God love me?” Thank you for all of the times in the years since that you’ve once again invited me into your home and answered my questions about God and mentored me in my relationship with him. Thank you for your genuine care and concern for my current and eternal life.

  • Boone and Peggy Powell - Boomer and Hunny, you have been a third set of grandparents to me and I’m grateful. Thank you for your relationships, for inviting me into your home, for sending me chocolate through the mail when I was feeling discouraged or just when you were thinking of me, and for calling and writing to check up on my medical status. Thank you for your love and care and encouragement.

  • Mia McClintic - Mia, I ran across the post-it note annotated People magazine you made for me recently and still haven’t stopped laughing. Thank you for being a friend that stayed during that time. Thank you for visiting me and encouraging me and advocating for me when I couldn’t advocate for myself. Even though we’re in different parts of the country and different places in life, we’ll always have Busride Holmes.

  • Elizabeth Schloss - Thank you for over a decade of friendship that led to you coming to watch movies with me and spend time with me after my brain surgery. From band to Girl Scouts to everything in-between, you were my friend when my health issues were tough and we didn’t know why. Thank you for the greatest childhood best friendship I could have imagined.

  • Jack York - Jack York, words cannot describe my appreciation for your friendship. Thank you for driving to Birmingham and visiting me in the hospital after I had my rib out. But more than that, thank you for answering the phone on that Saturday night and watching the last half of Despicable Me 2 and Pitch Perfect and a Modern Family episode or two. It was a dark night of the soul and I’m not sure I would have seen the dawn (literally and metaphorically) without you there. Thank you, dear friend.

  • Cory Paul Harrison - CPH, thank you for your kindness, understanding, and empathy. I was running late for a coaching appointment one morning because I was commuting 100 miles and had woken up with a bad health day and you simply said that you understood and to do what I needed for my body, and your response has stayed with me ever since. It’s a reminder that I too can be compassionate and understanding towards the needs of others, and that the world doesn’t have enough of that. Also, I kind of wish I could go back and do impromptu now because I think I’d finally be really good at it.

  • Bobby Imbody - Bobby! Thank you for letting me try out for the AFC after walking into your office with a handmade business card. Thank you for giving me a scholarship, for investing in my speaking and writing abilities, and for making it possible for me to go to college and continue throughout the medical process.

  • Barbara Stuart - Thank you for the kind words you shared with me after reading some of my entries. The emailed note you sent is part of what prompted me to take a look at the scope of what I had written and the start of what God put on my heart to do with it. Thank you.

  • Anna Rich Rickrode - Thank you for the many conversations over the years and the affirmations of my healing and growing. It’s helped to see from an outside perspective that healing was actually happening, and I’m grateful for your wisdom and insight in that process.

  • Pastor Jay Dennis - Pastor Jay, thank you for encouraging me to write. It was shortly after we met at Mohonk all those years ago that I started writing as a tool for healing and you can see how wonderfully that turned out. Thank you for your encouragement.

  • Kevin Pabst - Kevin! Thank you for visiting me at home after my brain surgery, I’m so sorry you saw the back of my head post-op. I’m so embarrassed about that now! Thank you for creating the logo for my short-lived project, UndMe, and please say hi to your mom for me. I still have the necklace she gave me, and it’s a reminder of faith has stayed with me all these years. Though I suppose, as it is a Giving Key, I should probably pass it on soon.

  • Dr. Amy Traylor - Dr. Traylor, thank you for the accommodations that were part of changing my life. The supplemental project you had me do to make up for being off-campus during your class resulted in a job that lead me to DC. You called me a superstar and made me believe I could be, despite the fact that I took my finals for your class from a hospital bed and felt more days feeling like a fallen star than one shining brightly. Thank you.

  • Mrs. Carroll Phelps - Mrs. Phelps, thank you for the opportunity to go to DC and for helping me learn how to self-advocate in the working world. The skills you taught me translated so much into self-advocating in the medical process and I’m grateful. I also admire your strength, poise, and confidence. Thank you.

  • Dr. Javonda Williams - Dr. Williams, thank you for taking the time to talk with me when I called or stopped by. I cannot imagine how incredibly busy you were and still are, but I’m grateful that you took the time to talk with me and advocated for me to continue in my degree when I thought I wouldn’t be able to do so.

  • University of Alabama School of Social Work - Thank you to the entirety of the University of Alabama School of Social Work faculty and staff. Dr. Payne, Dr. Alameda-Lawson, Dr. Simons, the list goes on and on. I should not have been able to graduate with everything I had going on, but you helped me with accommodations and with ensuring that I continued in my degree. I’m better for having gone through the UA BSW program.

  • Alabama Forensics Council - Thank you to my University of Alabama Forensics team members. You were there helping me back up after that brain surgery and were one of the few constants I had before, during, and after the brain surgery. Thank you for being my team.

  • Mr. Patrick Trueman - Thank you for the compassion and care you showed me as I came to work while dealing with the tumor and medical process. Your concern and prayers and encouragement helped me try to do my best at work and serve with what I could. It was an honor to work for you and at an organization under your leadership. Thank you for understanding.

  • Dawn Hawkins - Thank you for the accommodations you gave me and for working with me as I went through the medical process and learned how to navigate that while working a full-time office job. When I wasn’t sure I’d be able to keep working, and I told you I could only give 50% at that time, you told me that 50% of me in that role was better than 100% of anyone else. It helped me every day in giving what I could that day and was a large part of why I could get back up to give 100%. Thank you.

  • Laura Foreman - Thank you for coming to sit with me in the hospital after my brain surgery, for giving my parents a break, and for bringing me chick-fil-a. I can’t think of a better first meal to have had post-op.

  • All of my Girl Scout Campers - To all of my campers who know me as Oreo, thank you for your encouragement when I was sick. I still have all of the notes you wrote me and am proud of the young women you’ve become.

  • Dr. Zemedkun - You’re one of the best doctors I’ve ever had. Thank you for your clear communication and the way you helped me understand why you asked the questions you were asking, the protocols you were following, and what you were looking for. And thank you for encouraging me to self-advocate in the medical process and taking me seriously when I was about to give up. You ordered the test that found the tumor, and I’m grateful.

  • Kaity Stevens - Thank you for overriding my, “it’s fine” and taking me to the urgent care that night. You saved my life when I couldn’t see it was in danger. Thank you.