GROWING UP IN PUBLIC -- part 3

GROWING UP IN PUBLIC
FROM POSTER CHILD TO PRACTICING PROFESSIONAL

Editor's note:

Each day leading up to and including Valentine's Day, this blog will tell the story of my bride of 22 years in her own words.

By Heidi Johnson-Wright

Soon my folks were volunteering extensively with the local chapter and my mom was appointed to several committees on a national level for the Foundation. Years later, she co-founded the American Juvenile Arthritis Organization, a group comprised of health care professionals and lay people whose sole focus is the forms of arthritis that affect children.

Where was I in all of this? Like any young teenage girl, with or without a chronic health problem, I was obsessed with clothes, rock 'n' roll bands and, of course, boys.

But I was also in search of my own answers about my arthritis and what I could expect from the future. I sometimes thought about the thousands of other kids with arthritis facing the same problems. The next natural step for me was to begin volunteering my time and talents with the Arthritis Foundation.

It started out in small ways. I was interviewed by several local newspapers about what it was like to grow up with arthritis.

I'd tell them about my personal challenges and give them information and statistics about arthritis.

I was soon proficient at rattling off the numbers -- "a new diagnosis every 30 seconds, one out of every seven people, no known cause or cure." I always hated that last one.


TOMORROW: The Heidi Show

Heidi Johnson-Wright is a licensed attorney and Americans with Disabilities Act expert living in the heart of Miami's Little Havana. She and her husband, Steve, write free-lance articles about travel, entertainment and enhancement of life for persons with disabilities.