'She is my heart and I am her legs': Devoted dad runs triathlon carrying his teenager daughter with cerebral palsy because she loves being outdoors

A devoted father has completed a triathlon carrying his 13-year-old cerebral palsy-afflicted daughter across land and through water so that she could complete the gruelling event.
Rick van Beek's feat of endurance and show of love for his daughter Madison have led many to call the man from Byron Center, Michigan the 'father of the century'.
But it is not the first race of its kind for van Beek, who said he has participated in more than 70 events, including half-marathons, triathlons and other outdoor races, as part of 'Team Maddy'.

'Everybody prays that their children are healthy and for eight years I still wished that she had been a healthy child, but if she wouldn't have been like she is then we wouldn't be the people that we are today.'

'She functions like a three-month-old, and one of the very few things that we know she enjoys is being outside, being in the water, feeling the breeze in her hair and in her face,' he said.

Cyclist killed in collision with lorry
By Benita Aw Yeong
The New Paper
Tuesday, Aug 21, 2012
The 48-year-old bank employee leaves behind his pregnant wife, Mrs Tiffany Khoo, and a six-year-old son.
His cycling mates were shaken when The New Paper on Sunday contacted them on Saturday.
Mr Khoo was an avid triathlete who had taken part in several half-Ironman triathlon races, said his friends.

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Film director Tony Scott left notes in his car and office before plunging to his death from the Vincent Thomas Bridge in San Pedro, California, a Los Angeles County coroner official said Monday.
A friend found a note from Scott, 68, in his Los Angeles office, apparently written for his family, Deputy Chief Coroner Ed Winter said. A note left in his car on the bridge including names and phone numbers for his family was probably intended for officials investigating his death, Winter said.
"Tony always sent personal, handwritten notes & always drew a cartoon caricature of himself, smoking a cigar, with his hat colored in red," Carnahan said in a post.

Friendly colleague from a different department (F) came to my table to check something.

Just as she was leaving,

F = So, what do you plan to do for the holidays?

Me = Oh, you know, the usual predictable boring things, sleep, watch tv, shop ...

F = *Nodding/leaving ..* Yeah, you should try getting married...

Me = *Eyes widened in surprise while smiling politely/nodding and waving* Oh...K... Happy Holidays to you too..

Was discussing about a serious topic.

He said, "I think it's ABCD.... then..."

I was, "Ha? Not WXYZ ah?"

He looked at me blankly.

I interpreted it as, "OMG, this person has no idea what she's talking about, and yet she's in my office, supposingly discussing this issue?"

I was very embarrassed and I told him that I will get the logistics right before continuing this discussion.

***************

##went back and dig up info##

Turns out, I'm right, IT IS WXYZ.

So happy,,,, I'm doing the "MrBean woke up to Christmas morning dance"

Lesson One - Be more confident.

Lesson Two - It really doesn't matter that much.

The psychiatrist sms -ed me.
###
I'm editing the forum video, this quote of yours,

"We may not get better, but we certainly can learn to cope better!"

is very good!
###

---I said that? wow...

Due to my sentimental over-thinking perennial habit, I think of my troubled friends very often.
They are people whom I got to know/ paid attention to, because of my illness.
The origin of the place where we’re acquainted varies, hospitals, support groups, forums, even at workplace.
There are many of them.
And I think of them very often.
Hoping that they’re doing well.

I was chatting online and my friend typed her usual phrase,
"Remember, we’re the luckier ones."
I surprised myself with this reply,
“Although I don’t believe it, I know you’re not lying."
I ask myself, what does that mean?

There’s one thing that is very important, no matter what kind of period of history you are in: Always know yourself. If you know yourself, you have nothing to worry about. It’s like watching a play. You have two selves. One self is standing on this earth, another self is looking down from the air.

----Zheng Min, the last living member of China’s ‘Nine Leaves’

“There is much more to life than to focus on our limitations,”

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/8/4/nation/11783461&sec=nation

PETALING JAYA: Discovering that she had cancer that later left her paralysed caused Amelia Tan to plummet into darkness and depression.
But the plucky young woman has since risen above her difficulties and is now moving forward with her thriving online business, cheering her buyers up with the pretty trinkets that she hand-makes.
Four years ago, Tan, then only 19, was diagnosed with advanced stage lymphoma cancer of the lymphatic system which rendered her wheelchair-bound, having lost the function of both her legs.

“My dad and brother make daily trips to the post office to send the orders out and on the weekends, the whole family sits down to put the accessories in packets and cut ribbons,” she said.

“I had a lot of time to think during the months I spent recovering in bed and I decided that I had to rise above my present situation.
Tan described what happened to her as a “curse turned into a blessing” although she had to make major adjustments to her lifestyle.

She said that although her struggle with the disease was the most difficult and darkest time in her life, family support and her new-found faith in religion while in hospital gave her strength to keep going.
She added that her mother resigned from her job as a general manager and her older sister, who was studying at the time, took a year off and returned home to take care of her after she fell sick.

Black account Liu Fei

http://candyriver.hubpages.com/hub/Those-Ever-Sports-Heroes-of-China-Life-Poles-Apart-After-A-Retirement

She won the 1998 women's champion of the World skills Championship and retired in 2000, but then found herself struggle for hunting jobs. Liu Fei had to live in a small room, while her father had to sleep in a folding bed placed in a small corridor. The distress of life is heartbreaking. Liu Fei again and again said that she regret selecting the career of sports.

She said,” Flowers, applause, celebrity all embraced me when I was standing on the podium of world champion. I had never thought about whether it's wrong for me to choose the career. However, when I retired, I fell on evil days and was never out. I have no house to live, no work for a living. Even I have no idea of the whereabouts of my residence account. Even basic household appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators are, when it comes to Liu Fei, elusive dreams. While injury got from training day after day still is hounding and haunting her.

China's Disposable Athletes
When Zou Chunlan left school to become a professional athlete, her recruiting coach assured the 13-year-old that the nation's huge sports bureaucracy would look after her for the rest of her life. All she had to worry about was winning. For a decade, Zou followed his advice, winning the 48-kg national weightlifting title in 1990 when she was 19 years old and pocketing four other national championships. But when she retired in 1993, Zou discovered that the coach's side of the bargain wasn't going to be met. After three years of menial jobs in the women's weightlifting team's kitchen, she was asked to leave.

With her little education and total ignorance of the real world, Zou had little choice but to turn to physical labor. After stints carrying sacks on a construction site and selling lamb kebabs in the street, she ended up as a masseuse in a public bathhouse earning $60 a month. Her fate isn't unusual. A weightlifting coach explained to the Beijing News that Zou wasn't the only retired weightlifter struggling with the real world. "Zou's national medals are worthless. There are world champions who end up jobless after retirement."

Since her plight became public, things have taken a turn for the better for Zou. With the help of the All China Women's Federation, she opened a laundry shop six months ago in her hometown, Changchun, capital of Jilin Province. She no longer has to work as a masseuse at a bath house. But she is still struggling. Unable to read and unfamiliar with computers, she says she can hardly manage to add up her accounts. "I gave my youth to sport," she told TIME over the phone, in a voice thick with emotion, "but in return, I was thrown out like garbage with no knowledge, no skill and a barren womb."

Whenever I express my intention of having a haircut, the people who care about my appearance DO make a benign reminder,
"Whatever you do, DON'T cut it too short like the last time!".
I've always had the habit of making very drastic chops.
Mostly because I'm too preoccupied with my mental battles to effectively maintain a girly hairstyle.

Oh no, they're not those type who care too much about what other people think, etc...
How I know?
Coz' that sort of category NEVER want to hang out with me in the first place.
I'm a leper to them.
So, back to the people who matters...

People who care about me always give concerned expressions about my lack of initiative in grooming.
I know they bother to give these comments because they see the potential in me looking better, not for any other reasons.
My sister even bought me hairpins, hairbands to encourage me.

All their suggestions in improving my appearance merely sings "We care for you..."
It's always a comfort.

And I'm always guilty for failing to follow through...
hehehe