"Watch me"

Two weeks ago I asked that we gather in financial support of Sandra Weiler, the courageous woman with cerebral palsy who bought her own home in 1998, but now was being evicted due to foreclosure.  She had nowhere to go.  You responded. I received 105 checks from Think Daily subscribers totaling $21,500.  I matched every dollar you donated for a total of $43,000.  On Thursday evening I went to meet Sandra for the first time and present your checks to her.  She was blown away and incredibly grateful.  She will stay in her home that has been customized for her because of you.

I had the pleasure of talking with Sandra for an hour and a half.  Cerebral palsy is “a loss of motor skills with involuntary spasms caused by brain damage present at birth”.  She speaks with great effort – courageously producing every word.  She was deeply touched that strangers whom she has never met came to her aid in this way. Today’s Think Daily is from Sandra Weiler, PhD.

She told me – “When I was born my parents were told that their daughter would be a vegetable.  She will never walk, and never talk.  The best thing you can do is put her in an institution and move on with your lives.  Her mother would have none of it.  When Sandra was a child her mother told her “I will not do anything for you.  I need to see you try to do it first.  If you can’t do it, I will do it with you, but not for you”.

The world told Sandra, “You will never have a job”.  She said “Watch me”, and opened her own day care center, working 14 hours a day, and built it to 18 employees and 100 children. The world told Sandra “You will never be able to live on your own”.  She said “Watch me”, and bought her own home and lived there, on her own.  The world told Sandra “you will not beat bladder cancer”.  She said “Watch me”, and six years and six operations later, she did. 

Sandra was still writing thank you notes to the 180 people that attended her wedding, as she began writing thank you notes to the people that came to her husbands funeral. Sandra helped others, staying with people who were dying offering comfort, working all she could, even today one day a week teaching at UConn – the only day she doesn’t have to see a doctor or have physical therapy.  She doesn’t want to rely on others, her beloved mother made her independent. 

Some in the world told Sandra “You cannot stay in your home now.”  You, the Think Daily Community said – “Watch her”.