In recognition of #SevereMEDay, we would like to share this touching message of hope from Whitney (Ron Davis and Janet Dafoe’s son), which he conveyed to his mother with great effort. Whitney offers a reminder to each member of the patient community that they are not alone in this fight:
“Last night, when Whitney was on Ativan, I told him that August 8th is Severe ME Day and asked if he would like to send a message out to the patients around the world. He wanted to know if it would go out to patients all over the world and how it would be sent. I told him that OMF would send it out and that lots of people would retweet it and repost it and that his message would go really far.
What happened next was amazing. He closed his eyes and thought about it for a long time. Then he took an hour using Whitney Sign Language to dictate it to me. Word by word. If you look at the words you will be able to imagine how hard it was and how long it took. In between sentences he closed his eyes and after long pauses he’d start on the next sentence. He was crashing when he finished. He really is dedicated to helping patients! Here is his message:
“The Universe is always changing. Everything can change in a moment. You never know what will happen in the future. Never stop fighting. I’m fighting with you. If you feel like giving up, give it to me. I will carry it for you.”
With love and hope,
Janet”
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