Lydia's Legacy
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
By: Terry Badgley

My mother, Lydia, was the most giving person I've ever known. She was diagnosed with diabetes at about the age of 57. She lost a lot of abilities very quickly, but never lost her spirit or desire to help others.

My mom raised 10 children with very little means, alot of love and patience. When she was diagnosed with diabetes at about age 57, we didn't know a lot about it then. I wasn't very concerned until a few years later when she lost her vision! This was the biggest blow for her too, she couldn't drive to volunteer at the Sr. center, participate with Meals on Wheels or go to home visits. My younger sister jumped right in to transport mom to all of the volunteer things she could still do, and other regular activities.

Mom also lost two toes and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Through all of these things, she always had the desire to help others before herself.

At about age 66 she started to have kidney failure. Through its progression she had to start dialysis. This was the hardest thing for her to take. We now had to be strong for her! After long conversations with her and her doctors, she agreed to consistently get her treatments for 3 months, if it didn't imorove her quality of life, she would stop the treatments. After about 4 1/2 months with al three kinds of dialysis, mom ended up back in the hospital, it was a Thursday. She told my brother and I she was done... we called her doctor, they spoke for a while. He made sure she understood the results of ending the dialysis. My brother and I took her off the machine and took her home. She quietly passed away that Saturday evening, She had just had her 68th birthday.

I have one sister that is now diagnosed with Diabetes and a few others that are at high risk. We have a nephew that is doing diabetes research at Washington University.

The 10 of us are Lydias legacy. We all participate in some kind of volunteer work or our work involves helping other people. We also collect donations for the American Diabetes Association at our annual family Christmas Dinner, instead of exchange gifts. We raise between $200 and $300 dollars, plus the corporate match we try to find.

Thanks Mom! for giving us your strength and giving nature.

The family of Lydia K. Dorste (Corethers)