Earlier this summer, we had a garage sale!
We are finally sifting through the baby stuff down in our basement and ready to pass it on! And we decided to donate our garage sale proceeds to JDRF.
Sweets has been looking forward to this sale for WELL over a year!
She has been planning on setting up a water stand and selling refreshment to our customers. Yes, water. Not lemonade. She doesn’t like lemonade. She likes water. So there you have it!
The sale went really well! We made over $800 for our walk team!
But that wasn’t the best part.
The best part were the people who specifically came to show their support for JDRF and diabetes research and Sweets! We had friends who just came to show their support. We had a couple of different adults who came and were happy to show Sweets their own pumps! We had people of different ages – one was a lady about my age (so quite young) and another was an older woman – both with pumps and both eager to show them off!
Of course, no garage sale is complete without a few crazies.
There was a couple who came to shop and decided it was appropriate to share their beliefs about Type 1 and how it is cured.
You know where I’m going with this. It wasn’t pretty.
I had a couple of signs up stating that we were donating the proceeds to JDRF and some basic facts about type 1. The lady stopped to read it. I happened to be doing a pod change at that time so I was busy but she asked J if we had a cat.
He said yes.
Long story short, she proceeded to tell him that that Sweets got diabetes from our cat and that our cat has parasites.
Nice.
Oh, but that wasn’t all. Nope.
She just wouldn’t let it go.
She then came over to the water stand where Sweets was “working”. She wanted to buy water. That was nice.
But then she started telling ME about the parasites and how her friend had diabetes but got rid of the parasites and started eating healthy and the diabetes went away. And that I needed to get Dr. Crackpot’s (not his real name – although close, I’m sure) book.
Ok. Deep breath.
I calmly explained to her that type 1 was an autoimmune disease and that unlike type 2, it could not be treated with diet change alone.
To which she told me, in a rather nasty tone, “I know what diabetes is.” And her husband added, “And so does Dr. Crapforbrains.” (Also not is his really name…)
Ok.
Deep breaths.
I responded with, “NO, I think I KNOW what diabetes is and what it entails.”
I must have had the crazy look in my eyes but she didn’t say another word and she left.
And it’s a good thing she did.
Because I would have hated to have gone completely Mama Bear crazy on her and caused a scene at our garage sale! I could feel my anger rising up – threatening to spill out.
I don’t get upset too often. I usually will bit my tongue. I’m not a fighter.
BUT
Do NOT come to my house and tell me lies and my child’s disease. Do NOT tell me it was caused by CAT. Are you for real? If it was that easy, do you really think that all those doctors and scientists would not have figured that out by now? UGH. That sends me over the edge.
I can feel my blood pressure rising as I type! And I’m trying very hard not to use the kind of language that I WANT to use about this situation!
So, all in all it was a success! $800, new D buddies, and the WORST CURE EVER. All in a days work!
