There were a lot of things that ran through my mind the afternoon that Hugh was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. As we rushed around trying to pack and make arrangements for a hospital stay, I was able to hold it together. Squeezing Amelia tight and handing her over to my mom, we jumped in the car and started the 2 hour trip to Baton Rouge. That is when I had time to think.

I could have thought of a lot of people that day as we drove to the hospital. The handful of people we knew with Type 1, Amelia who we had to leave behind for the first time, Hugh singing happily in the back seat not knowing this would be the last “normal” day of his life. But I wasn’t thinking about any of those people.

Who was I thinking about? Shelby.

Any proper Southern girl knows exactly who I am talking about.

My colors are blush and bashful – You’re colors are pink and pink. (Sorry, I just had to quote that line.)

Yes, I was thinking about Shelby from the movie Steel Magnolias, who is a Type 1 Diabetic. More specifically, I was thinking about the scene when Shelby’s blood sugar is low in Truvy’s Beauty Salon and she starts shaking all over. (As much as I love Julia Roberts, that is a horrible portrayal of what actually happens when a diabetic’s blood sugar is low.)

Like any good Southern girl, I had memorized the movie by watching it hundreds of times. And we all know what happens in the end – Shelby dies. Because she did not listen to her Southern Mama and she has a baby, which wrecks her kidneys, and causes her to go into a coma. Even as young girls, we learned from Steel Magnolias that women are strong beyond belief, that all baby boys should be named Jackson, and that we must never break our Mama’s heart like Shelby did.

Except this time I was not the daughter. This time I was M’lynn (the mother). And my heart was breaking, just like M’lynn’s. Suddenly I realized that Steel Magnolias was never about Shelby. It was about M’lynn and how a mother would do anything to protect her children. And though it was never said in the movie, I know M’lynn was thinking the same thing I was that day when her daughter was diagnosed with diabetes.

I wish it were me. Give it to me. I will take the diabetes, if it will spare my child.

If only wishes were granted through sheer will and iron fisted determination . . .

And so we drove on that afternoon, heading toward our scary and uncertain new future. Scott, Hugh, me, and Shelby and M’lynn.

To Be Continued . . .