“My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge.”—Hosea 4:6
This series of articles was originally written by me in 2003 and has since spread around the world: it has been published in Africa, the UK, Sweden, Canada, Europe and Asia, translated into many languages and read across the United States.
This is the story of my mother's life and suffering. I wrote it so that her life would not be wasted in an attempt to help anyone else. This week, the Lord asked me to share this article again with my readers. Faithful readers of this column will remember the dire circumstances that I and my family faced when my mother suffered for 12 years from diabetes and all the other effects it has on the human body. This is my story.
My work in diabetes prevention education and outreach, under the name Fannie Estelle Hill Grant, began after my mother died of type 2 diabetes on Christmas Day in 2000.
I realized that the diabetes health issue is on fire, especially in the African-American community, and it's still out of control. I hope this campaign will stop adding fuel to the fire and put out the fire.
My mother was 73 years old, a wife, mother of nine, and a homemaker who loved her family very much. She made it a point to prepare delicious home-cooked meals for her family and serve dessert any day of the week. Mom loved to cook, clean, do laundry, and even though she was raising nine children, she always had room for others in need.
During our childhood in the 1960s, my mother was the wife of my father, a sharecropper in North Carolina, and in 1965 the family moved to Washington, DC. For over 30 years, the Washington Metropolitan Area was our home.
My family learned that my mother had type 2 diabetes after she suffered a severe stroke in 1989. She only lived 12 years after her diagnosis. My sisters and I vowed to launch an educational prevention campaign while visiting and caring for her during her final year of life.
My mother and my father returned to North Carolina where my mother spent her final years in a very peaceful environment. We bought her a new house, took over the mortgage payments, and she was happy. My mother Grant enjoyed life on a 226-acre farm near Kinston. She was one of the heirs to the farm that my father and my grandfather, Floyd Hill, left to the family. She enjoyed walking around the farm while my father worked.
My mother had multiple strokes, one of which left her tongue unable to move and unable to speak, kidney failure that put her on kidney dialysis for the last two years of her life, persistent high blood pressure that remained that way for years, both of her legs were amputated above the knee, and she suddenly went from being 5 feet tall to just over 3 feet tall.
We wanted to know more about the disease that took our mother so cruelly. There was a lot of pain and suffering before she passed away. Grandma Grant was a Christian and a gospel preacher in churches in the Washington DC area. Everyone loved her and called her “Mom.”
As the eldest daughter, I have made a commitment to educate millions of people about the causes and prevention of type 2 diabetes.
First, I learned all I could about causes, prevention, and impacts. I had already learned firsthand how type 2 diabetes affects our bodies. My interest was how to prevent much of this damage. I interviewed doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Washington Hospital Center, Howard University, and other private physicians who specialize in endocrinology. Eventually, I became an ambassador for the American Diabetes Association and accepted speaking engagements telling my family's story.
I feel so much better now knowing that by sharing it with the public, my mother's life will not be in vain.
Tune in next week for part two of this five-part series: “The Problem.”
Lyndia Grant is a speaker and author living in the Washington, DC area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs every Friday at 6pm on Radio One 1340 AM (WYCB). To contact Grant, visit her website at www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com, or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on Twitter @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.