Humans of Downey - Onalee (Sue) #2

"Our next big adventure is to figure out how to do the things we want to do. Our circumstances are a little different than most. We have a set of show dogs, Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, that we take to shows. It’s our responsibility to take care of them and we can’t just leave them.

"Then there’s just life in general. We’ve gotten to the stage where this is bothering us and that is bothering us. The doctor said, ‘Now get ready. You’re getting to that age.’ And I said, ‘Thanks for that news.’

"Then there is this. We had two children. A boy and a girl. We found out when our son was 6 years old that he had muscular dystrophy. So, we took care of him. The doctors said he probably wouldn’t live into his teen years. He died at age 36. For the last 25 years he couldn’t do anything. He was on a respirator, he couldn’t feed himself, he was confined to a wheelchair. So, our privilege was to take care of him full-time.

"So, now it’s getting out in the world and doing or living the things we haven’t done for the past 25 years. A lot of people used to ask us when we were taking care of our son, ‘Don’t you miss going out and stuff? Like to dinner?’ I said, 'No. I am eating out. Food is being brought to me and I don't have to cook.' My other enjoyment during those days was to go to the market. The simpler things in life you enjoy more or you find things out of them that bring you more joy than someone else might think of that didn't have the circumstances with our son.

"There is one thing I'm looking forward to in the future though. I love Neil Diamond. Every year I would see on the TV that he was coming to put on a concert. And every year I would say, 'I wish I could go, I wish I could go.' Well, with that in mind, my husband got on the computer and he bought us tickets for Neil Diamond's concert in August at the Forum. That is the first item on my bucket list that I get to check off. Little things like that make life more enjoyable."

~ Onalee (Sue)