Seventy Days in the ICU, and a Sign That Said Try Again Tomorrow

The story

Holly’s autoimmune crisis put her in the ICU, far from the newborn daughter she wanted to get home to. She felt weak. She wanted to give up. That feeling is honest. Many people have had it in a fluorescent room.

A survivor named Kit visited and taped a sign where she could see it: “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s the soft voice at day’s end saying I will try again tomorrow.” For the first time she felt understood.

What happened next

She practiced breathing in minutes, then longer stretches. After 70 days the tube came out. She walked again. She later told the Autoimmune Institute that the work was to keep fighting in the quiet way: rest, then get up, then look for one usable good thing in a hard season.

A lesson you can use this week

Put one sentence where you will see it at 9 p.m. Not a billboard about greatness. A permission slip to try again tomorrow.

Sources

Autoimmune Institute, “Holly’s Story: Courage Doesn’t Always Roar,” autoimmuneinstitute.org.