Tracy Todd Heine is a South African who will touch your heart, inspire you and remind you to live every day to it’s fullest.
Mbombela, South Africa (14 April 2020) – Lives can be changed in an instant. For Tracy Todd Heine, that moment came in April 1998. She had walked out of her home with her husband, holding their baby on her hip and dragging a suitcase packed with beach clothes. Seven weeks later, she was pushed through their front door in a wheelchair, unable to move anything except her head.
Everything had changed.
In her candid, inspiring memoir, Tracy reconstructs the horrifying moments of the accident when for a split -second she took her seatbelt off to change her baby’s nappy, and her memory when she realised that her neck had broken and the realisation that from that moment on, everything would be different.
That was 22 years ago, on the 13th of April 1998… Easter Monday. Tracy landed up in a permanent physical lockdown when she was paralysed from the neck down in an accident with no chance of ever going back to “normal”.
Tracy shared a heartfelt post about how she felt on that day, and ever since.
Read it below:
On this anniversary in the past, I’ve cried sometimes and longed for things to go back to how they were, to a life I’d planned in a physically active body and a life I thought I needed. In the latter years, I found gratitude and love and was able to celebrate a new beautiful way of being.
Today I’m feeling anxious with you. I’ve had a glimpse into your feelings of fear, isolation, frustration and uncertainty, and I know how overwhelming it can be.
I lie awake at night thinking about all the people in ICUs across the globe, fighting for their lives on ventilators with exhausted dedicated healthcare workers by their sides. It’s too close to home. I’ve been there. You don’t want anybody you know and love to end up on a ventilator (trust me) or, even worse, die of this terrible virus.
Lockdown is tough. I don’t know the extent of your suffering, what you’ve lost already or stand to lose if it continues indefinitely. Our socio-economic circumstances are different, and our struggles unique. Losing everything is terrible. Life may never be the same for any of us ever again.
I do know that you are stronger and braver than you believe. South Africans, in general, are resilient.
When the time comes, I know that we will all roll up our sleeves and pitch in to rebuild our country. But for now, lives matter. Your health, safety and well-being of others, especially our essential workers and our most vulnerable citizens, is of the utmost importance.
All I can do is to urge you to stay home, keep safe and stay healthy. And don’t think it can’t happen to you. I was also that arrogant once.
Help those you can. Stay kind. Keep faith. Be positive.
I pray that you may have the strength to carry you through this difficult time and find the peace that you all so deserve.
Stay strong and stay home.
by 