2006 Death Valley JDRF Ride

Thank you and your team for helping the JDRF cause of finding a cure to diabetes. Unfortunately this past weekend, our family was again reminded how urgent that cause is. In the words of my daughter:

"Sometimes I wish God would give me super powers. Escaping from a handful of chariots loaded with angry warriors by crossing the bottom of the ocean would be cool. Even just making the end of the day go a little faster would be helpful. In fact, there have been several times when I question that God even exists, but that's not a problem now. What God gave me today was better than $1,000,000,000.

In aisle 6, as we looked at the cat food, there was a funny look in my dad's eyes. He was looking at the cat food, but it was as if he were far, far away. Like deep in thought. "Dad, this one's a pretty good deal. And we don't need too big of a package—just enough to fill up the bin.”

"Yeah, sure." His eyes stopped concentrating. "DAD!" His head flopped over. He began to lose balance. I caught him but his weight was more than I could hold. His empty body fell to the ground. The crack hurt. A lot.

I ran to the front desk. "911", "He's type 1 diabetic." My mind got scrambled but I knew what to do. A larger lady picked up a phone. I went back to aisle 6. Three people were already around him. "I need to call my mom." One of the ladies stood up. "There's no reception here, take it outside." She handed me a flip phone. . . ."mom . . ." Mom told me she'd find someone to come be with me. I looked around. "Who gave me this phone?," I thought to myself. I hadn't even looked at the lady. I ran outside; someone was already there, waiting for the ambulance, holding her son close to her. The sound of it got louder. We led them right in the store. As I walked past the check-out a boy a little older than me said, "Is that your dad?" "Yeah". I went back to the commotion. I gave the men my dad's bag with his license and medical stuff. Then, I waited.

The packaged blue soap stared at me. I stared right back, until a lady came up to, me asking for her phone. She rubbed my back and left. I waited for a while until Margaret arrived. She gave me a big hug. I felt like crying, but her glasses went into my face with the tight hug and it distracted me.

We waited some more, "so can you tell me your name?" They began to question my dad . . .

Lucas finally showed up. With him there, my heart lifted. He called mom just to ask where the "good" jelly beans were. I followed him around after that. We left at last. Dad was put into the ambulance. I watched as he was laid onto the bed. The bikes were in the van and we were ready to go home. Margaret followed us. We didn't unpack the bikes, just went inside.

David Nestvold (Coach NW JDRF)
Bellevue WA