Yesterday, I went to our MM support group meeting. It’s a small group. When we don’t have speakers, it’s very small (6-8 people). When we do have speakers, we can have 20 or more.
Yesterday’s group was small. A policeman from a town near me did the race up the Empire State Building steps in NYC and raised money for the MMRF. He came and told us about his experience. Nice guy. Does not have a personal connection to MM, but his mom is fighting lung cancer, and his life was not going well(health was deteriorating and going through a divorce) and he decided to turn things around. Stopped smoking(he’s an asthmatic, aren’t we all in Jersey) and started working out and eating right. Dropped 40 pounds and got his bloodwork back to healthy levels. He is very excited to be taking on this cause of MM awareness and fundraising and is getting to know us, as well as our head nurse. Now, here’s a guy who just wants to put good out into the world. Wants to make a difference. Then, a couple came to the meeting who normally doesn’t come because the wife works part time. She wants to do an MM 5K in NJ. There is one in April in Philadelphia that I’ve never made it to, and one in CT. But Jersey is such a populated state, and we have so many MM’ers here.
She has MM and recently lost a friend, a man with MM who was an avid runner. She and his widow decided to take up this cause. Our group is in. We are going to try to get the first one up and running in time to
do it this fall. We will then make it an annual event. I got in my car to drive home yesterday and thought to myself how great I felt. What a pleasure it is to spend 90 minutes with such wonderful people. I mean, 3 of these women have cancer(the rest of us are spouses) and this guy just went through a disappointing divorce where his wife moved out of state with his little boy. And what are they doing with their lives? Giving back. Paying forward. Making a difference in the lives of OTHERS.
I silently chastised myself for spending far too much time with toxic people who began to rub off on me and made my life more difficult than it already was. I vowed that I won’t make that mistake again. Once you get a bit older, realize life is short, and start meeting a better class of people, you realize that your life will reflect who it is you spend your time with. Choose wisely.