This year marked the 20th anniversary of a date that changed my life forever and I couldn’t let it go without writing about it. I am so incredibly grateful the Woman’s Way magazine loved it too and published it for me.
Here it is…
17th September – How One Date Literally Changed My Life
20 years ago today, I was involved in a car crash that changed my life forever. The ironic thing looking back now is, it wasn’t the change that I thought it was going to be, instead it was much much bigger.
Let me explain.
It was a crash that never should have happened. It was through pure carelessness from the other driver that I was left unable to move. I had to stop myself from spiraling into a hole trying to explain a crash that was just so unfair. Why? Why me? And the only thing that kept me sane was telling myself over and over that there must have been something much worse ahead that may have killed me that morning. My car was destroyed, I was left in constant pain and my desire to climb up the corporate ladder faded with every hospital visit. My life as I knew it had ended.
Over the years, I lost all hope and confidence in both myself and the future. The pain was relentless and simple tasks felt so overwhelming. The 17th of September haunted me. It was like the anniversary of a loved one. It was the day the life I knew ended. I grieved for the pain-free life I once had, I cried for the life I had been left with.
“You’ll never be pain free…. You’ll never live a normal life” is what I was told over and over. I was 5 years in and I wanted to die.
After questioning if there was anything to live for, I woke up one morning with a strength and hope for another solution, so I went in search of an alternative route. Here started the journey to discovering my real life purpose, still unknown to me. I found an end to my years of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, depression, IBS, nerve damage and insomnia through food strangely enough! All the medication I had been given, all the procedures I had gone though, all the heartache, tears and agonising pain and all I needed to do was look at what I was eating, what I wasn’t eating and the inability of my body to function “normally”.
I miraculously fully healed all the conditions I was told I had to live the rest of my life with and was excited to return to work roughly a year after my journey to health started. Two short years later, I was made redundant.
It was 2009 and the recession had hit. Endless months searching for a job, lead to nothing and I was forced yet again down an unknown path. So I decided to follow my passion and delve further into the world of nutrition and accomplish a goal I was never given the opportunity to at 18, and go to college.
The more I learnt about health and nutrition, the more I realised THIS is what I was meant to do. I had an excitement, drive and passion I had never felt before and I knew before I even qualified that this was where I was meant to be. The car crash that destroyed my life causing years of pain was finally making sense. I was so optimistic I had passed my exams, I had my business name and website domain registered before I even discovered I had in fact passed with two distinctions!
Finally the 17th September, that horrible crash that destroyed my life, made sense. My crash had to happen for me to find my new career.
2010, the year I qualified from college, brought a very different memory for the 17th of September because my first born arrived 5 ½ weeks early. No explanation as to why, no difficulties when she arrived, in fact she was perfect. So perfect, we left the hospital together after just 3 days!
Today 17th September 2019, I celebrate my beautiful daughter’s birthday. I marvel at how she has defied the experts by being one of the most intelligent and tallest in her class whilst celebrating 9 years of job satisfaction I didn’t know existed.
20 years ago today, I was involved in a car crash that changed my life forever.
If you would like to learn more about Fiona’s journey or how nutrition helped her, visit her website www.heathandnutrition.ie or call her on 086 601 6701.