Stem cells hold the potential to treat or even cure many diseases, such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and Huntington's Disease. Although I did not vote for President Obama, I applaud him for signing an executive order in 2009 repealing a Bush-era policy that limited federal tax dollars for embryonic stem cell research.
I thought there was no disease more cruel than Alzheimers until I visited my childhood friend, Vicki Bailey, last December at Barfield Health Care in Guntersville. Vicki suffered from Huntington's Disease. When I arrived, Vicki was asleep sitting up in a chair. Startled by how much she had changed, I had to step out into the hall until I could stop sobbing. A nurse walked by, touched me on the shoulder and simply said, "I know."
Huntington's Disease is a brain disorder that affects a person's ability to think, talk, and move. In the United States, about 1 in every 30,000 people has Huntington's disease. A parent with Huntington's Disease has a fifty percent chance of passing on the disease to their children. Vicki's mother had Huntington's Disease.
My family lived in Guntersville from the time I was five years old until we moved back to Union Grove when I was twelve. During those seven years we lived two doors down from the Bailey family on Forest Drive which runs parallel to Sunset Drive. Vicki and I were the same age and together we learned to ride a bike, to roller skate, and to shoot a BB gun. We sat together on the school bus every morning and afternoon. In the summer time I would often stay over at her house which had central air conditioning. It was paradise! Our house only had a window air conditioner in the kitchen that never quite cooled the bedrooms.
The summer after 4th grade I invited Vicki to go to Bible School with me at Guntersville First Baptist Church. We learned about salvation and what it means to be saved. On the last day of Bible School, the pastor asked us all to close our eyes as he prayed the sinner's prayer. With every head bowed and every eye closed, the pastor told us Jesus was knocking on the door to our heart. He asked us to raise our hand if we wanted Jesus to come into our life to be our personal Lord and Savior. I raised my hand, but since my eyes were closed I was unaware that Vicki also raised her hand. I am an emotional person and the conviction of the Holy Spirit caused me to cry. When the pastor told us we could open our eyes, I saw that Vicki was also crying. I remember this as if it were yesterday.
When we moved back to Union Grove in December of 1969, it was long distance for me to call Vickie in Guntersville. (Cell phones had not been invented.) So, she and I became pen pals and wrote letters regularly. For the first two or three summers Vicki came out to Union Grove and stayed over at our house.
Vicki and I gradually lost touch, probably due to the fact that Arab and Guntersville are such huge rivals. But, I consider her my most precious life-long friend.
About a year before my Dad died of Alzheimer's Disease, I began to doubt God. Daddy's brother, Don, told me that if life were pain-free and perfect here on Earth, we wouldn't look forward to Heaven.
I pray that Steve, Bill, Sammie, Susan, and Jill find comfort knowing Vickie is now pain-free.
Vicki and me - December 2009
