home-grown Hero

Last night, my daughter was quite sick.  A tummy flu bug that's hitting all the neighbourhood little people. This afforded me night watch nursing duties and the opportunity to snuggle with my barfing babe.  During one of the interludes when she wasn't wretching into a bowl or a large saucepan, or screaming with gut pain, she gently turned to me, held my head and out of the blue, said:

"Mom, you're like Rick Hansen."

"I am?" I replied, quizzicly (and wondering if I should check her temperature one more time...which had been normal, despite all the tummy trouble.)

"Yah," she replied, "DID you know that Rick Hansen lost the use of both of his legs in an accident?"  I nodded. "Yah, well, he did.  He woke up to find he couldn't use his legs and his doctors told him he'd be no use to anyone ever again because he couldn't use his legs! And you know what he did?  He didn't believe them, he said "NO!" and he got right up and got in his wheelchair and he started wheeling across the country.  When his doctors told him he wouldn't walk or doing anything ever again, you know what he did?  He said, "No, I'm gonna carry on!!!" and that's how you're like Rick Hansen, Mom, because when your doctors told you that you had Sys, Systam, oh, Systemic Masotosis, no Systemic Masto..cy...TOSIS, you know what I mean, you got right up and said, "NO, I'm gonna carry on!!!: You didn't sit down and cry and feel sorry for yourself and think it was all over.  Nor did Rick.  And you do, you keep trying to do 'normal' stuff that other people do even when you can't, but you try, and you try to make life as normal as you can.  So, I think you're just like Rick Hansen because you both were told by doctors that you can't live your lives the way you want to and both of you said "NO! I AM going to live my life the way I want to."  So Mom, you're like a Masto Hero just like Rick Hansen is a parapalegic Hero.  Your my Mommy Hero!!!"  And she squeezed me like she was loving me to the moon and back times infinity to googleplexes and back.

I was speechless.