“She’s just like her mother,” is something I never wanted to hear about my daughter.  When my oldest daughter was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, at the age of four, my husband and I were devastated like all families are. I knew the life I had dreamed of for my daughter had been drastically altered. Carefree was gone. After 28 years of living with type 1, I now had a daughter who was ‘just like her mother’.

Life goes on. Our entire family learned what many others families before us have learned. Filling prescriptions. Counting carbs. Extra time, preparation and organization for even the shortest of trips. Kitchen drawers, cabinets and butter compartments full of diabetes supplies. High blood sugars. Low blood sugars. The new normal took hold.

It’s been almost 12 years now since Ellie was diagnosed. Side by side, we do our blood glucose checks, change our pump sites, and fix highs or lows. We have our ups and downs, but my hope is by showing my daughter that I do not allow diabetes to hold me back, she will not let it affect her choices in life.  Yes, it might take more planning and work up front, but anything is possible.

After years of doing the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes with my husband, Steve, Ellie joined us in 2013. Working through a Ride to Cure with diabetes is tough work, but side by side, with Steve’s help and the help of Ride coaches, Ellie crossed the finish line after 100km crying tears of joy, along with Steve and I. Side by side. Our youngest daughter, Anna, joined us in the Ride in 2015. We all ride, side by side, and it has brought us all even more close, but Ellie and I have a special bond of managing diabetes, in one of the most physically and emotionally challenging things I’ve ever done.

I see us now doing things together and helping Ellie prepare herself for a life of her own. We are trying to inch back from asking, ‘what is your blood sugar?” and “Did you remember to bolus?” conversations and reframing to “anything we can do to help you”. It’s scary for her, and it’s scary for us. But we know it’s part of the process of growing up with a chronic disease.  We’ll be there to help her and offer our insights, and I can’t imagine when we aren’t side by side.

–Katie Clark

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