Chris’ Journey

 I never understood how fast it took Stephen to complete about 15-20 miles, one day I dropped him off and we had discussed a meeting point about 20 miles away. So I assumed I had enough time to go get gas in the car and buy another poster board (somewhere along the way we lost our first poster with all the distances on it) and meet him on time, let’s just say I assumed wrong. Stephen had been waiting for me in the freezing rain for about 20 minutes and to top it off it was the one day we were not able to call each other. Now you would think I would have learned my lesson and for the most part I did, but there were a few other days when the communication skills were lacking and it took me awhile to estimate the amount of time I actually had. Part of that was because every day was a new set of maps and more unfamiliar places.

One of our main concerns was the directions. Luckily, Georgia was a nice place to ease into the ride because there were not too many confusing turns (we really only saw about 18 million churches, some houses, and long roads).  The mileage on the directions was not always accurate and for the first few days it took awhile to get used to the style of the directions and I would have thought that by the last day I would be an expert at reading the directions. Unfortunately the last day was probably the most confusing day in terms of directions: Stephen went about 6 miles off the route and everyone took a wrong turn (luckily we all made the same mistake). But nonetheless, we did make our way to Holliston and we were not too late!

I definitely would not have made it to Holliston without everyone who helped me. Judy was an amazing help for the first few days and when she left I was definitely lost without her for a little bit. She bought the infamous lawn chairs for us (surprisingly I actually never got to sit in one for more than 15 minutes because every time I decided to get it out Stephen and Andrew would ride up and we’d be on our way).

After a few days by myself, Debbie joined me in the car. She told me so many great stories and probably the most in depth family history of the Youngs and the Wrights. As Debbie and I were driving through North Carolina and Virginia we noticed that in every yard there were gravestones. So we soon termed every cemetery a “neighborhood” because we did not see a single person so we began to think everyone was in the cemetery.

Without Judy and Debbie I would have been a mess. The second week I had another few days by myself but Stephen’s parents  soon relieved me and helped me out. By the second week I was a little exhausted (not physically like Stephen at all) and when I was driving with Stephen’s mom I stopped at a stop light thinking it was just a stop sign, then I proceeded to see if there were any cars coming and made my turn. Stephen’s mom then told me the light was red and I just went right through it, I had too many things on my mind and I had no idea it was a stoplight. We laughed about it the other day, but at the time I was so scattered. Fortunately, both the car and I made it home in one piece (I do not know how though)!

I am so grateful that Stephen’s parents let us undertake this whole project, at first it seemed like such an idealistic goal and now I cannot believe that we finished the ride. The support of Stephen’s parents throughout the entire process of the ride has been amazing.

One of the best parts of the ride was being able to meet Amyloidosis survivors. The stories of Judy Collins, Judy Lessard, and Jay Helwig were so inspirational to hear because they are all such brave people. Meeting each of them made me realize how positive they are and determined to beat this disease. 

Even though I was with Stephen the whole ride, it still amazes me how he was able to complete this ride. Some days he made it seem so effortless and at times I found myself complaining more than him. Despite the ups and downs, I think Chris’ Journey was an experience I will always remember and be proud of.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us! We could not have done it without you.

-Aislinn

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 9:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.