More than just an Aide
Our family is blessed. Nicole has been Walker’s Aide since her first day in Kindergarten. She has watched her grow from a shy 5 year old to a charismatic, spunky, overly exuberant 8 year old. She has been there through her first shots and honeymoon period, and is now overseeing as Walker adds her own carbs and enters the numbers into her pump. She’s the first one to hear the tales of infidelities of friends on the playground, and play bodyguard as onlookers try to interfere with juice boxes and granola bars. If it hadn’t been for Nicole 3 years ago, I probably would be homeschooling the kids today.
Nicole is the reason I’m able to let the kids out of my sight. During the first month after Walker’s diagnosis I remember a friend asking how I was doing. I said “ok, but I can’t let Walker be more than a room away from me at a time. I just worry too much.” She looked at me as if I was crazy. Most people did, for that matter. “She’ll be fine.”, “What could go wrong in 10 minutes?”, and “You’ve got to lighten up, it’s not like you can be with her 24/7.” were all phrases I heard from well-intentioned friends. But unless you’ve been there, unless you’ve looked in your child’s eyes while their blood sugar plummets, you’ll never understand. Somehow, Nicole understood.
For 7 hours, while Walker is at school, Nicole is on guard. I rarely worry when I know she’s taking care of either of the kids. She’s usually one step ahead of me whenever I text with a question about blood sugar, snack or lunch dosing, or an extra recess. She checks in when there’s a substitute. She intuitively can sense how they’re doing, just like a T1 parent can, just by the glint of their eyes or the pallor of their skin. If Nicole says “I gave her a granola bar” I know there’s damn good reason beyond anything I can see on a CGM graph. I trust her with the lives of my children. Literally.
And the thing that makes me feel the most secure, above all else, is that Walker trusts her. Ultimately that’s what matters. That that kids not only are safe, but that they feel safe
