Reader’s Digest
112 september 2019
it, she said, “Emotion without action
is irrelevant.”
She was right. Screw this, I thought.
There has to be a reason I’m still alive.
All this wasted emotion feeling mis-
erable for myself needed a direction.
The direction I chose was gratitude.
I thought of all the people who had
saved my life. The strangers who ran
to my side after the truck hit me; the
doctors and nurses who brought me
back from death more than once; the
staff at Gaylord who were doggedly
helping me walk again and relearn
basic tasks.to begin physical therapy. It was my
next ring of hell. My therapists wanted
me to try to walk with a walker. It was
difficult and painful and, for some-
one who had considered herself
an athlete, disheartening. I just
couldn’t do it.
“Am I ever going to walk normally
again?” I asked.
“We don’t know, but we’re going to
work on it,” the therapist said.
They were so damn honest.
What pulled me out of my funk was
remembering a speech I’d heard by
Nobel Prize laureate Jody Williams. InSince leaving the hospital, Colleen, shown at the Superhero Half Marathon (left) and with
Sean at the Cheshire Half Marathon, has competed in dozens of triathlons and marathons.photos:^ courtesy^ ofcolleenkellyalexander^(^2)