It was just a normal day in my life. I had moved up from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast 3 weeks previously, hoping to start a new life for myself after my very difficult divorce. I hadn’t been feeling well, a bad cough, very lethargic, no energy or motivation to do anything.
My daughter came around and insisted I go to the doctors. I was just scrolling on my computer and noticed a post. Mel called out to me, “Time to go Mum”. I felt this urge that I must print out this post.
I printed it out and put it in my pocket. At the doctor’s, my usual doctor wasn’t available, so I had to see a different one that I hadn’t seen before. He wanted me to have the nurses do a few tests on me. He wasn’t happy with my chest. I had a bad cough that didn’t seem to be getting any better.
He rang a ‘mate’ of his at the new hospital and his ‘mate’ said he would see me if I came straight up. He was leaving in half an hour. Up we went and saw the ‘mate’. He decided I needed to be admitted getting my cough sorted out.
My daughter went home to my place to get some clothes for me, and while she was gone, I had a major stroke. I had no idea anything had happened I was just dozing in the bed.
When she came back, she noticed my face looked a bit ‘weird’. Then she asked me if I had been given any tranquillisers as my speech was slurred. She ran down to get a doctor and all hell broke loose. 5 doctors came running and my daughter was shoved into the corner.
All I can remember was thinking ‘Who are these people yelling at me. I don’t know them, but they know my name’. They kept yelling ‘KICK ME KAY ’ but I couldn’t. I was paralysed down my left side.
Praise God I wasn’t home alone as I usually was, and that I went to the doctor with a mate’ leaving soon.
The rest of the day was a blur, but I could hear my daughter sobbing. I felt a warm presence and God’s still small voice saying, ‘don’t be afraid, I’m looking after you’.
I remember an ambulance ride people running around, and then I woke up next day in a different hospital with my 2 girls beside me saying ‘Ange ( my daughter from Melbourne ) is on her way’. All I could think was how lovely that would be to have my 3 girls together, not realising how close I had been to passing away the night before.
I had a ‘miraculous’ recovery. I moved my fingers in 2 days and was up walking in a week. The doctors would stand at my door and shake their head and say that I was lucky to be here. I would smile my crooked smile and say, ‘A miracle’,
I would read that verse every day, and not understand it but knew God was working his magic.
My rehab was fun. I would climb stairs, and they would take me for walks around the neighbourhood, but I couldn’t walk straight, I would VEER, we would laugh but I never fell in the gutter, so I worked hard, 3 sessions a day, and I was home in a couple of months.
I decided that God had given this me miracle for a reason, and that he must have something more to do in my life. I was going to live each day intentionally and not waste a moment.
One Day, I was sitting looking at my pile of journal pages and speeches that I had written, wondering if I should keep them or throw them away, and a light bulb came on, ‘these are my stories’. Each story could be a chapter in that book that I had filed away somewhere in my brain.
This is what God wants me to do. I googled how to write a book.
Start with your WHY
Write your framework
Make a list of chapters - I had to cutdown from 40 to 20
This was the beginning of the LIFTED UP WOMEN’S MOVEMENT.
I remember the day so well.
At first, I thought it would be about 50 pages, but it was already written,
so I added and edited, and it ended up 150 pages.
LIFTED UP BY ANGELS - my story His Glory from a weekend away 30 years ago was formulating.
It’s now published and on the bookshelf of Koorong, the Christian bookstore up here, and on Amazon and all the online bookstores.
Who would have thought that a stroke could bring something wonderful and change my life miraculously?
PRAISE GOD
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