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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,263
Registered: ‎03-15-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

I have no amazing stories.  Just getting through life is amazing enough for me.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 15,519
Registered: ‎09-01-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

Every month I drive 115 miles round trip, at my expense, to the closest donor center in this region, to donate platelets to the American Red Cross.  I have donated 18x, which is a total of 36 units of processed platelets, that have been sent to various hospitals in WV, VA, and PA.  What I'm doing is not amazing, but I have surprised myself with my firm commitment to do this for as long as I am healthy enough to do so.    My next donation is Wednesday, and I always say a prayer for the patients who receive my platelets.  Newborn babies, patients with cancer, as well as trauma and transplant patients need platelet transfusions.   Sometimes patients have to wait days or even weeks for a platelet transfusion, due to the Red Cross not having this blood product readily available.  I retired early due to my husbands poor health, and several days every month are devoted to his medical appts.  However, I find one open day a month on our calendar to make this trip, in an effort to do what I can to help others.

Super Contributor
Posts: 443
Registered: ‎09-23-2015

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

That's awesome, redtop!
"I always have a chair for you in the smallest parlor in the world, to wit, my heart." --Emily Dickinson
Respected Contributor
Posts: 4,180
Registered: ‎04-10-2012

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

I built a three story brick chimney by myself with no prior brick laying experience, terrified of heights , and it turned out beautifully (:
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,754
Registered: ‎05-08-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?


@RedTop wrote:

Every month I drive 115 miles round trip, at my expense, to the closest donor center in this region, to donate platelets to the American Red Cross.  I have donated 18x, which is a total of 36 units of processed platelets, that have been sent to various hospitals in WV, VA, and PA.  What I'm doing is not amazing, but I have surprised myself with my firm commitment to do this for as long as I am healthy enough to do so.    My next donation is Wednesday, and I always say a prayer for the patients who receive my platelets.  Newborn babies, patients with cancer, as well as trauma and transplant patients need platelet transfusions.   Sometimes patients have to wait days or even weeks for a platelet transfusion, due to the Red Cross not having this blood product readily available.  I retired early due to my husbands poor health, and several days every month are devoted to his medical appts.  However, I find one open day a month on our calendar to make this trip, in an effort to do what I can to help others.


@RedTop  Thank you so much.  My husband received platelets twice when he had MDS.  He also had 140 blood transfusions.  Thank you donors!

Fear not Brothers and Sisters! I have read THE BOOK..........we win!!!
Honored Contributor
Posts: 41,469
Registered: ‎03-12-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

Dh and I hand raised 2 sparrows fresh out of the egg, no previous bird experience. Little girl lived to be 9 years 9 days old before going back to God. Her brother is still alive and well, 10 years, 3 months old. Most humbling and terrifying experience in my life, when they were newborn.
There are many elements: wind, fire, water
But none quite like the element of surprise
Honored Contributor
Posts: 21,838
Registered: ‎10-03-2011

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

I don't know if this really qualifies, but for me, it was pretty amazing and something I consider one of my life's special and memorable moment. 

When our children were young, we'd have family reading time after dinner.  We'd gather in the living room and I'd read aloud.  One book we read was Jacob's Rescue.  A brief synopsis is that this book is set in Warsaw, Poland during WWII.  The father of young Jacob Gutgeld and his brothers knew they weren't safe because they were Jewish.  He asked a Gentile co-worker, Alex Roslan, to take them and protect them during the German occupation of Poland.  Alex and his wife, Mela, did just that, adding the three boys to their family, even though that put them all at risk.  As the story unfolded, we read what life with The Roslans was like, how they endured during their time in hiding, how two of the boys got sick and needed to be smuggled into a hospital by hiding in a sofa, etc.  One brother didn't survive, but after the war, Jacob and David were reunited with their father, who made it to Palestine. 


In January, 1995, I was watching Good Morning America and they did a story on it being the 50th anniversary since the liberation of Auschwitz.  I was immediately reminded of that book we had read just a year or so prior.  From the book, I knew that Alex & Mela Roslan had eventually moved to Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  I don't know what it was, but somehow I was prompted that morning to call directory assistance and try to find a phone number for them.  After a couple of deep breaths and working up the nerve to call, I dialed the number.  By that time, they would have been on in years so I wasn't even sure if they were still alive or not.  A woman answered, whom I believed was Mela.  I asked if I could speak with Alex.  He came to the phone.  It was really him and even though I probably stumbled over my words, I had the privilege of being able to thank him for rescuing those little boys so many years prior. We talked only for a few brief minutes, but he did tell me that both Jacob and David grew to be very accomplished men, one a physicist and the other a mathematician, if I remember correctly.  Alex and Mela are recognized as rescuers at the National Holocaust Museum and were declared Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem.

And, that's my story.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,195
Registered: ‎03-13-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

Oh, sheesh.  I have nothing amazing to write.  But, I just had to write any way and say how much I admire all of you here.  Woman Very Happy

"A day without sunshine is like, you know, night." - Steve Martin
Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,495
Registered: ‎05-03-2014

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

You guys are really great. Smiley Very Happy

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Nick Chavez now has his own sub-forum under the My Favorite Brand folder
Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,767
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: When did you surprise yourself by doing something amazing?

[ Edited ]

I am naturally a scairdy-cat.  But I got a job offer I really wanted to take when I was 37 and it was going to require that I drive every day.

 

So I confronted a driving phobia I'd acquired after a fender-bender when I was 17 and re-learned how to drive. To this day, given how scared-stiff I was every time I got behind the wheel, for at least a year or two, it amazes me that I stuck with it.

 

These challenges are gifts sometimes:  driving in so many parts of the country is freedom. 

 

I beat my terror of flying, too--by flyiing every chance I could for a while.  Everyone is different, but I've found that when I confront my fears. they lose some of their power--not all at once, but they do wear out, bit by bit.