She Was Hurt the Same Day I Was Born

About a month ago I met a very cool woman, a C6 quad too (although very incomplete. she can stand), by the name of Judy Siegle (www.judysiegle.com). I do a podcast series for women with disabilities, and interviewed her in April about tons of stuff: Being in the Paralympics for wheelchair racing to her book "Living Without Limits," among other things. She was fun to talk to to say the least.

While interviewing her though I discovered something very uncanny about her story. She broke her neck THE EXACT SAME DAY I was born: August 11th, 1979. Isn't that trippy or what? So obviously, she's been paralyzed 28 years (my age exactly). In the grand scheme of things regarding signs from God, etc, I'm not sure if this means anything, but it's just plain weird to think the day I came into this world, her life completely changed. And then 14 years later - August 25th, 1993 - I went and got my neck broken too (diving accident). She was in a car accident.

And even cooler, she lives relatively close to me up in Fargo, ND. That's about a 4 hour drive from me. I live in the heart of downtown Minneapolis and absolutely love it. Well last night she was in my 'hood, so we decided to meet in-person for dinner at the Mall of America. After pit-stops before meeting her at H&M, Hot Topic, and Barnes & Noble, we met and had dinner at the Twin City Grill; my hands down favorite restaurant in this mammoth mall. Their homemade mac 'n cheese (with bacon, tomatoes, and bread crumbs) is totally orgasmic.

It was a great meeting and I'm glad to have made a new friend with such a wise, fascinating, and accomplished woman. A few years ago she even went to Romania to pass out wheelchairs for the Wheelchairs For The World Foundation. How cool is that?!