GLA Blog

A Fourteen-Year-Old Boy Wrote A Poem About His Mother's Lyme Disease

Written by Global Lyme Alliance | Nov 23, 2022 8:42:11 PM
Read a special poem written by the child of a Lyme warrior. 
Jessica Devine is a Lyme disease patient advocate, who runs the RISE ABOVE LYME support group on Facebook. She was bitten by a tick over ten years ago and was seen by 30 doctors over a 4 year period before being properly diagnosed. Her children witnessed the ultimate test of their mother's strength and gained valuable lessons of love and compassion. 
 
Her son, Parker, was only four years old when she started having health issues. He used to check on her, run for help when needed, and she even has a video of him at the age of eight where he could name all of her co-infections. She said, "I was shocked he paid that much attention. He would make me bracelets that said brave on it. Instead of placing kick me stickers on my back, he would write I AM A SURVIVOR. He has witnessed some awful stuff as a child of a parent with Lyme. He is beyond special. Kind and compassionate and ALWAYS the first to know if something is wrong with me, even now at almost 14 years old. I cherish who he is. He had an assignment for school..a poem. Last night he came in my bedroom and said 'Mom, can you come to my room?' So I followed him, sat down and he read me this poem. I was speechless and cried. We hugged a long time."'
 
"LIME"
I hate Limes…
just the word makes me sick.
They don’t taste necessarily bad but,
they just… I don't know…
but I do know that I hate them…
They are like budget lemons. Too scared to
be sour enough. Always, “Lemon-lime Drink”
Why not “Lemon Drink” or “Lime Drink”
Just make up your mind already!
The color isn’t even that nice, it’s the color of barf.
A Lime is the broken alarm clock that needs an alarm clock to wake up on time.
A Lime feels like a glass of lukewarm water on a hot summer day.
A Lime is the friend in the group that is just there for the popularity…
and that it is what makes it petty.
It doesn’t try to get better… it just tears down everything around it.
Trying desperately to “get what it wants”
What is it trying to do then huh?
It ain’t trying to do anything? But it takes the lives of so many… so many…
INNOCENT PEOPLE
Who have nothing but hope and those like them.
BECAUSE THE DOCTORS DENY THEIR PROBLEMS ARE REAL
They deny that the Limes are there because they hide.
And because the doctors “aren’t good enough to look”
And those innocent people usually can’t even find the Limes until it is
TOO LATE.
But I guess I am lucky because I get to hate limes.
Me and my loved ones are here on this planet long enough to hate those limes.
And even though I am just one small piece of hope in the big picture,
It still hurts to hear when people so young are challenged so fast.
And sometimes the survivors need to help those who can’t help themselves.
Together.
Because they have hope,
because they have knowledge,
and because they have love…
Did I mention that I hate Lyme?
-Parker Devine
 
The above material is provided for information purposes only. The material (a) is not nor should be considered, or used as a substitute for, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, nor (b) does it necessarily represent endorsement by or an official position of Global Lyme Alliance, Inc. or any of its directors, officers, advisors or volunteers. Advice on the testing, treatment or care of an individual patient should be obtained through consultation with a physician who has examined that patient or is familiar with that patient’s medical history. 
 
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