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When you’ve always been the strong one, asking for help is the hardest part of an emergency.
Crawling across your apartment, screaming and writhing in pain, while living by yourself puts your entire world into sharp perspective.
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🧭 At the Table This Week.
The Strong One
Who can I call? Who can help me? What do I do? How do I put clothes on and not be nude when the paramedics arrive?
Then the embarrassment and shame hit: “not being able to take care of yourself” when you’ve spent your entire life being “the strong one” your family looks to. My stepfather told me many years ago that I was the only one of the kids he felt he didn’t have to worry about. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I have spent my whole life trying to prove I don’t need help, and now I was begging for help every which way I could turn.
My very first thought, and the first person I knew could help me, was my bestie, because she deals with hospitals and emergencies 24/7. The problem was she was an hour away. Could I lie on the floor long enough for her to get to me before I called…
