Here is the winning essay written by 17-year-old Matilda Bishop, nominating her mom, Lorna Bulpin.

“I’ve been chronically ill with an undiagnosed illness for about 11 months now. At first, it was just me feeling unwell, but it progressed to the point where I could no longer function on my own. Sometimes seemingly simple tasks like dragging myself to the bathroom and brushing my teeth become ominous. Occasionally, I am unable to shower for days, unable to hold the strength to stand in the shower. For the first 6 months I was sick, we spent three of those in the hospital, where she would sleep on an uncomfortable pull out couch.

Through all this, my mother has been patient, understanding, and thick skinned as doctors and people have made offhand comments and mistreated us. We have travelled to far corners of the United States to receive what is supposedly the best care, only to be quickly disappointed to where my mother is in tears. Despite this, she still continues to take care of me and support me on my bad days, and encourage me and be a “normal mother” on my good days.

She definitely deserves to be honored because of how she has managed to battle on and help me and the rest of our family despite the hardships my health has caused us.

She continues to work for Challenge Island, Ltd. where she works admin and teaches some of the classes. She also does the majority of the brunt work with caring for our home and my sister and father.

Not too long ago, when I was sick, my mother came down with appendicitis and had to be rushed to hospital. After having it removed she then caught a nasty infection and continued to battle on and care for us despite being in large amounts of pain. She then continued to care for my father when he came down with pneumonia from legionella.

Despite all these challenges, she manages to try and live a relatively normal life. I am so thankful for her and I know the rest of my family, and all those who have the pleasure of knowing her, are too.”

 

This article originally appeared in the May issue of the EAST COBBER magazine, on page 6. Click HERE to access the digital edition.