Maya Davidson had fought many battles in her
young life – with her mother (as a pre-teen), with her father (as a teenager),
and later on, with her ex-husband, Mel (when she was a young adult). Now, she faced the biggest battle of her life
– to save her young daughter, Bree, from the ravages of juvenile diabetes.
Yes, Maya was
certainly a fighter – she had been a professional ballet dancer for many
years. She had fought her way up the
ladder of success, rung by rung. She was
most famous for her portrayal of ladies who had struggled for their
independence. Maya had been given the
news about her 12-year-old daughter, Bree, just one month ago.
Bree, who was a very
talented artistic gymnast, was diagnosed in May 2007 after complaining of
fatigue, constant thirst and unexplained weight loss. When Maya later talked about Bree’s disease
with her ex-husband, Mel, she would tell him that she did not want to admit how
very scared she was. Neither of them, in
fact, wanted to admit that. Being in
denial was a way to protect themselves, as well as to cope with this horrific
news – it couldn’t happen to their kid.
Like her cousin,
Ryan, whose son Michael likewise had juvenile diabetes, Maya had also been
involved with the Sick Kids’ Foundation for many years. She had seen many families with kids come and
go in the Hospital for Sick Kids in Toronto.
However, being there with her own kid hit her like a ton of bricks. Life as the Davidson family had known it
would never be the same.
It had been a very
tough year for Maya – she’d recently retired from her very demanding
professional dancing career and had been through a controversial divorce from
Mel, amid rumours of a romance with a famous male surgeon. She had recently gotten re-married to Lyle, a
younger and more handsome man than her ex-husband. In addition, she was considering a new career
as a television broadcaster, as, she would wryly put it: “I have a natural gift-of-the-gab and I
should use this to my advantage.”
Maya was so proud of Bree. She felt that every bad thing that had
happened to her in the past year did not matter anymore – not compared with
this. She would shout encouragement to
her daughter during Bree’s gymnastics competitions, calling out praise after Bree
would perform well on an event. It
seemed that she was so active and healthy-looking that it was truly frightening
to hear from her doctors that, if not managed carefully, juvenile diabetes
could lead to life-threatening insulin shock and coma.
Maya had come to
realize that Bree’s health was more important than anything else in her
life. She would tell those people close
to her just how emotional she would get about it. In fact, seeing sick kids at the hospital had
always made her feel that way, especially when kids said that their last wish
was to see Maya. But, she’d been able to
leave those kids and their families behind to deal with this disease and go
home and hug her own family, thankful for having them. Now, she had to deal with it as well,
and was so thankful it was a manageable disease. A positive aspect of the news was her
resulting truce with Mel after their rather bitter and public divorce, which
was played out in all the newspapers.
But, they were both able to set their feelings aside for the sake of Bree.
For the most part, Bree
herself coped very well. Her first
question after getting the news from the doctors was: “Can I still do gymnastics?” She was told that she could, as long as her
diet was controlled properly and she took three insulin shots per day. After all, if Steliana Nistor of Romania
could win a silver medal in women’s artistic gymnastics at the World
Championships while coping with Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, Bree could
certainly participate in the same sport.
Not only that, Bree had discovered that Steliana had also developed
juvenile diabetes at the tender age of 12.
Bree wanted to be
treated like any other girl who played amateur athletics, but there were
definite restrictions. Her mother would
come over at the halfway mark of a competition to supervise the testing of her
blood glucose level; it had to be done then, as well as before and after any
competition.
Maya would also take
her turn with Mel at giving Bree her insulin shots. This was quite a feat for Maya who was
actually quite squeamish. But, even
though giving needles was not “her thing”, she resolved to do whatever she had
to do for Bree.
As the competition
was coming to a close, Bree left the floor exercise area and dutifully pricked
her finger for the blood test and tested her glucose level, as she should,
while Maya looked on. “Six to eight,
that’s good, Bree!”, Maya said, with relief.
You might be
wondering how Bree, herself, felt with her private life so exposed to the
public, but Bree had given her parents her permission to go public with her
disease. Though such a young girl, Bree
showed that she wanted to raise awareness about juvenile diabetes. She wanted people to know about its dangers,
but said: “It’s very easy to handle,
once you get used to it”. She said she
wanted to help raise money for a cure, showing an infectious grin. And, she wanted her whole family to get
involved with fund-raising, as well.
Amazingly enough, Bree, with the united help of her family, in just one
month, had it under control.
In June 2007, the
entire Davidson family, including Maya’s elder daughter and ex-husband Mel, united
together at the annual Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk for a Cure at
Ontario Place, lending their name and support to a cause that had suddenly
become very personal.
At that point, Maya
was beginning to realize that being in the public eye could have its
advantages. And, she also realized that
engaging in a fight for her family’s future was going to be a fight she needed
to win.
copyright - Anne Shier, 2013, all rights reserved, published by Authorhouse, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
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