Chapter 14 - The Woman I BecameFive years after the night of the red wine…
My foundation opened its largest rehabilitation center.
Hundreds of people attended.
People who had survived accidents.
People learning to walk again.
People rebuilding their lives.
I stood at the entrance.
Walking without a cane.
My father stood beside me.
He looked at the building.
“You did this.”
I smiled.
“No.”
I looked at the people inside.
“We did.”
A young woman approached me.
She was sitting in a wheelchair.
She looked nervous.
“Mrs. Hayes?”
“Yes?”
“I don't know if I'll ever walk again.”
I knelt beside her.
“Maybe you will.”
She looked at me.
“And if I don't?”
I smiled.
“Then you are still not weak.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
I held her hand.
“I spent a long time believing strength meant standing.”
A pause.
“Then I learned strength means choosing to keep going.”
She smiled.
And I knew exactly why I had built the center.
May you like
Not because I wanted to forget what happened.
Because I wanted something good to come from it.
