I am embarrassed to say that it took me several months before I started using my cane in public, and even longer before I started telling folks the reason. I had even switched from daily mass to only Sunday mass, and even missed a few of those when I had a bad fall or two the week prior.
Now that I am out of the closet about my illness I have been so richly blessed with the chance to have others tell me about their experiences, as well as the illnesses that they too hide from most of the public. Also I get allow folks to feel a sense of service and charity for easy things like letting me pass in a line, or picking up my keys or walking stick (or whatever else I drop . . . and I drop everything). Every time I fall to the ground I can lift up my sufferings for another, and every time I suffer one of the many embarrassments associated with ALS is another chance to suffer in exchange for grace to be given to another.
Yep, I'll never be a husband or Priest, never be a dad or a Father, nor will I have to worry about retirement or social security. I can instead be thankful for the knowledge that so many folks ignore, that a successful career doesn't matter to God unless those successes are given up to Him, that a big house is vile in a world while others are homeless, and that serving others even in our own sufferings is the only true joy.
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