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Over Coming Adversity [1]

['View Profile', 'Greg Dworkin', 'Belinda Ridgewood']

Date: 2026-05-02  

The last couple of weeks have been difficult to say the least. It started as I got up to walk into the kitchen to get some coffee. All of a sudden in the time of a snap of the fingers I had a stroke. My eyesight which has never been good became worse. Everything past the length of a hand is very blurry. My body which is riddled with arthritis aches constantly.

One of the results is that I had to sell the car I loved so much because I could not longer safely drive. With it went my independence.

Life has never been easy. I was the second of five children and the only girl. I was the unpaid babysitter. My older brother was the one I was supposed to live up to. I will never forget .mother telling a friend “Mike is so smart if Michele wants good grades she really has to study.” The irony is I was the first child to graduate college. My SATs were in the top 1% of the nation in everything except math and that was 68%. I was told I was bad at math until a teacher when I was an adult and taking a math class so I could take astronomy asked me to stay after class. He wanted to know why I hadn’t majored in math because I had a real aptitude for it. I could have become the astronomer I always wanted to be.

I grew up emotionally conflicted with a mother who never cared for me and a father who cared too much. It wasn’t until the end of her life when I moved in and took a job I hated to be her caregiver that my mother realized I had worth.

I took in the forgotten child Reid and became his caregiver for 12 years. Through my acceptance he had the courage to come out as gay. We’ll I’m afraid I kind of hurt his big reveal. He said, “I have something to tell you, I’m gay.” My reply was “I’ve known that since you were in high school. What do you want for lunch?”

I helped my niece through a bad marriage. I had one of my own so that I was an expert on that. I spent an hour one night on the phone convincing her to give a good man a chance. She is happily married and her 3 children had a good father. I had her oldest son in my home and took him all over town so he could join the Navy and serve on a nuclear submarine which had been his dream.

I am navigating a new reality. I may have damaged eyesight but I can still see. I can still write. Realistically who else is prepared to have Satan in a Steampunk novel as a character with a half immortal and half Irish lady as an opponent? I figure if you are going to have a battle between good and evil then don’t be wishy washy you must go all out.

I have a couple of paintings that I need to do as soon as I clean up and can get to my desk. The most important person in my life was my second grade teacher Mrs. Bluestein who believed in me and told my parents “look at her art!” I’m an artist today because of her.

I guess the whole point of this rambling is never give up. No matter what life throws at you you can handle it. Believe in yourself. Create a new reality where you draw on the strength you have within you.

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/2/800032022/community/over-coming-adversity/

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