This Is a Story About Superheroes: Episode 1

This is a story about superheroes. 

Usually a superhero has  some sort of back story: a regular, everyday person has a random encounter with something like radiation or electricity or a Space Age Polymer, and then, BAM!  John becomes Super-Sonic-Plant Man or Brayden turns into Furry-Skeleton-Dog-Tail Boy! 

They have to then navigate life now that the Weird Thing has changed everything.  

Of course, they have to make sure their identity is kept a secret.   It is way cooler if no one discovers that regular old Wendy is, in fact, Electro-Doritos Girl! 

The kind of superhero I want to talk about today is a real life, regular, everyday person who has, in fact, had an unexpected encounter with a Weird Thing, and has had to figure out how to live with this detour.  

These people are real life superheroes in my eyes, even if they don’t think they are. I have admired their examples of grit, endurance, and transparency.  

Names have been changed to protect their superhero identity, of course.  But you know who you are. In no particular order, let me introduce you to: 

Cordelia:  Cordelia was minding her own business,  just running the local library programs and being an all-around great mama and grandma.  She and hub were just driving along, thinking about the next highway they would take in this phase of life. Then, suddenly, they were T-boned by her diagnosis of a very aggressive cancer.  

Normally a private person, Cordelia has found her superhero writer persona to share her heart so that other people might get encouragement from her story. 

Against her normal desire to stay more hidden, Cordelia has been using the metaphor of a long road trip to illustrate how God has been helping her to navigate her “Road to Recovery.”  She uses her beautiful writing to describe the trials, setbacks, victories, laughter, and tears of this trip, always pointing people to God  

From showing us her nutritious fuel she cooks up in the kitchen to laughing with us as she tries to find a hat, Cordelia is a mild mannered librarian by day, but, when someone needs encouragement, she becomes THE QUILL!

Henrietta:  Henrietta was your average mom, wife, and great friend, just trying to walk with God and love her family.  One day, inside her head she felt extreme pain, and, within seconds, it seemed to her like her head was going to explode.  Her daughter was able to get her to the hospital, where she spent weeks recovering from a brain aneurysm that almost took her life.  

After (literal) blood, sweat, and tears, Henrietta toiled to get back on her feet.  She was even able to get her old job back.  Everyone in her life was so happy to have her still here with us and able to get back to her life. 

But, Henrietta still struggles in her private world that is not always apparent on the outside.  No one else can see the trials she must daily work through in the aftermath of her injury.  

She still struggles with a brain that has been injured.  

Every day she has extreme fatigue—maybe you don’t realize how much energy your brain uses each day, just to be at rest.  I found out that the brain uses around 0.3 kilowatt hours per day, which is said to be more than 100 times what the typical smartphone requires daily! 

When your brain is injured, it gets a lot more tired from just performing the normal tasks of life.  

This daily fatigue can be very discouraging, but Henriettta still presses on each day. She has to accept when she has to be done for the day and not feel defeated when she cannot complete the tasks she had on her list.  

Henrietta also grapples with brain fog and emotional dysregulation. She knows the things she is “supposed” to think, but her injured brain sometimes goes rogue and won’t go along with the program.  She daily has to remind herself of God’s truth just to get through the regular parts of the day without becoming overwhelmed with negative thoughts. 

Henrietta is a Warrior of the Truth; she is VERITAS!

Siegfried:  Siegfried was a regular Gen X dude.  He loved restoring his old house and hanging out with his homies, grilling out on the deck in his backyard (that he built himself) with his tunes.  

But, one day, he noticed a tremor in his hand.  He had a feeling it wasn’t good.  

After too many tests and the purgatory of awaiting a diagnosis, Siegfried found out that his suspicion was correct:  it was Parkinson’s Disease. 

Parkinson’s Disease has a terrifying potential prognosis.  It would be easy to just turn off the tunes, stop talking to people, and close the curtains. But that’s not how Siegfried responded. 

Siegfried knows this illness has a scary trajectory.  But he still does projects on his house and has grilling parties with the guys.  Every week, you can find him riding a bike, swimming, lifting weights, making cool signs and decals, and going to physical therapy. He watches what he eats. He keeps up with the latest research on treatment, and even had the courage to go through a surgery INSIDE HIS BRAIN that helps keep his tremors a little more under control.  

He knows and understands that Tomorrow might be difficult.  But he lives his life fully Today. He grinds forward with determination to stay strong and to keep moving.   

Siegfried: a regular Gen X dude grilling out back in a metal tee.  But now, he is THE FORGE!  

Xena:  Xena was a mom and grandma who loved driving her red sports car around to visit her peeps, and got a kick out of watching her chickens peck around in the yard.  She had just lost her husband, but was keeping her chin up and doing things she loved to do and spending time with the people she loved.  

But, a health glitch knocked her down.  No problem, Xena just got back up and kept going.  Then, another health issue  Ok, get up again.  

But then it happened again.  

And she rallied again.  And again.  

Ok, now this is getting ridiculous. And again…. 

It seemed like every time Xena got back up again, something just flicked her back down to the ground.  Her last trial really was a doozy.  Xena’s spine was so brittle that she could not even do basic movements without her bones spontaneously crumbling!  The pain was so bad she didn’t even know if she could stand it anymore.  

It would have been easy to just give up and say, “I’m not getting up anymore.”  

But that’s not what Xena did.  She kept fighting hard and pushing through against the discouragement and the pain, even though some days it was an epic battle just to survive the one day. 

And the long days blended into one another so that a week felt like months.  

 But then, her perseverance started to show results, a tiny bit at a time:  

She started getting a little stronger.  She started finding the ability to do just a few more things. 

And then a few more.  And then even more.  She was starting to get some of her life back! 

Xena is an indomitable warrior. Even when her spine was crumbling and she didn’t think she could actually even stand up anymore, she stayed vertical.  She is PILLAR!

I’ll leave these stories to stand on their own until next time because I have a lot more to say about these amazing people and many others like them.

Check out our next spellbinding episode (here) about these superheroes!