A co-worker and I became friends and often shared stories offline about life and other things. Before she joined the company I had developed a lung disease called sarcoidosis. My lymph nodes would spasm and cause me to cough every thirty seconds or so. It made life very uncomfortable for a season… especially since I was a customer service agent answering phone calls.
One time at home I got into a coughing fit and passed out, fell off my desk chair, waking up on the floor looking eyeball to eyeball with my dog Grissom’s curious look and a bump on my head.
To combat this inflammation of the lymph nodes I was prescribed prednisone which over the course of time aided in my exceptional weight gain.
Eventually, the medication worked, but now the weight was upon me.
I had become quite large on this healing journey, but that was neither here nor there to my co-worker friend, and so our heart to heart conversations continued.
Then I got an announcement from my son… he was going to get married to following summer!
There was no way I was going to his wedding carrying this weight. I researched weight loss plans and found one that would work for me. I committed to the plan and began to lose the excess pounds. Day after day, week after week, I stayed the course. And my co-worker friend noticed. She never said anything, but she noticed.
One day, about four months later, after I had settled in to my desk, she came in to the office and asked if I could get something from her car. I gladly jumped up and followed her outside and to her car. She asked me to grab her backpack. She said it was too heavy for and asked if I could carry it for her.
I reached for it, and it indeed was heavy. I asked what was in it and she would only smile with a “You’ll see” look. I picked up the backpack and carried it to the office. We sat down at our desks and I looked at her with an inquiring look.
“How heavy do you think that bag is?” she asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, about 40 pounds?” I replied.
“That’s the weight you’ve lost since you started your diet!”
I was overwhelmed (and a little teary eyed). That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me. What a great illustration of friendship. My eyes tear up even as I type these words. I went on to lose thirty more pounds and looked great at the wedding (just sayin’…).
But I will never forget that act of kindness.
DT
