My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. — Hosea 4:6
This multiple-part series, originally published online in 2003, has since been shared worldwide. It has been posted in Africa, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Europe and Asia, translated into different languages, and appears across America. When last published, many readers eagerly anticipated each installment. It tells the story of my mother’s life and suffering to help others, ensuring her life was not in vain. Recently, I felt compelled to share this article with my readers again.
For those who have followed this column faithfully, you are aware of the devastation faced by my family and me as my mother suffered for 12 years with diabetes and its many complications. For newcomers, here is my story:
I am pleased to run this series for the second time. My diabetes prevention education public relations campaign, established under the name Fannie Estelle Hill Grant, began after losing my mother to Type 2 diabetes on Christmas Day 2000.
I noticed a fire burning in the diabetes health arena, particularly in the African American community, which continues to burn out of control. Hopefully, this campaign will help “stop fanning the flames” and extinguish the fire.
Mother was 73 years old, a wife and mother of nine, and a homemaker who loved her family dearly. She believed in preparing wonderful home-cooked meals for the family, including desserts any day of the week. Mama enjoyed cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. Although she raised nine children of her own, she always had room for other needy children.
In our early years, during the 1960s, Mother was the wife of our sharecropper father in North Carolina. They moved the family in 1965 to Washington, D.C., where we lived for more than 30 years.
We learned of Mother’s Type 2 diabetes after she suffered a major stroke in 1989. She lived only 11 years after the diagnosis. My sisters and I pledged to begin an educational prevention campaign while caring for our mother during her last year of life.
Mother and Father moved back to North Carolina, where she enjoyed her later years peacefully. We purchased her a new home and took over the mortgage payments, which made her happy. Mother Grant enjoyed living on the 226-acre farm near Kinston, where she was one of the heirs to the land left by Floyd Hill, her father and my grandfather. She enjoyed walking around the farm, following my father as he worked.
Mother suffered many additional strokes; during one, she lost the use of her tongue and couldn’t speak. Her kidneys failed, requiring dialysis for the last two years of her life. She had high blood pressure for many years, and both of her legs were amputated above the knees.
We wanted to know more about the disease that took our mother in such a brutal fashion. There was so much pain and suffering prior to her death. Mother Grant was a Christian and an evangelist who preached the gospel in churches throughout the D.C. area. Everyone loved her and called her “Ma.”
As her oldest daughter, I promised to educate millions of people about the causes and prevention of Type 2 diabetes. By sharing with the general public, I feel much better now, knowing that my mother’s life will not have been in vain.
As discussed in part two of this series, we discovered that the problem stems from our diet, lack of exercise, and genetics. Many from the same family may not be born with Type 2 diabetes tendencies. However, out of our family of nine children, three are known to have contracted Type 2 diabetes.
Today, there is a treatment with the advent of Ozempic. Research on this medication began in 1977. Many steps have been taken, and although some research is not positive, the potential consequences of living with untreated Type 2 diabetes are worse, in my opinion.
If you’re looking for a Women’s Day or Black History Month speaker, please consider me, Lyndia Grant, a trained inspirational and motivational speaker. My phone number is provided at the end of my column each week. Look for the conclusion of my series on Type 2 diabetes next week.
Lyndia Grant is a speaker/writer living in the D.C. area. Her radio show, “Think on These Things,” airs Fridays at 6 p.m. on 1340 AM (WYCB), a Radio One station. To reach Grant, visit her website, www.lyndiagrant.com, email lyndiagrantshowdc@gmail.com or call 240-602-6295. Follow her on X @LyndiaGrant and on Facebook.