Precerpt from Grandma's Ninja Diary: Independence Day Reflections on Strength, Stamina, and Attitude
Entry: The Real Gym at Home
Today is Independence Day—not just for the USA, but also for my daughter, who surprised us all by being released from the hospital after two long weeks fighting sepsis.
My daughter, now 49, moved home almost a year ago. She has spina bifida, including paraplegia. She is strong—and she stays strong. After all, she’s Grandma Ninja’s daughter. The two male nurses who helped with discharge saw that firsthand when it came time to get her from her wheelchair into the car. They struggled until I mentioned I could lift her out of the chair myself (she’s only 125 pounds) and then she could pull herself onto the seat, using the handhold above the window. They looked skeptical, but one of them gave it a try—and sure enough, she could. "She is really strong," he commented.
As we navigated her homecoming, I realized how much she contributes to keeping me strong. Sometimes, I do have to lift her. Before we adjusted her bed last summer, I used to volleyball her from her wheelchair onto the higher bed while she tucked and rolled. Our visiting occupational therapist gave us high marks as a mother-daughter gymnastics team—then wisely lowered the bed and added a triangle pull so she could get in and out on her own. Still, there are times when I lift, assist, and carry. So, my upper-body workouts at the gym? They have a new purpose.
Eighty to a hundred pounds is my usual weight range, but on good days I can wrangle 125 or 130 when needed. People have commented on my strength more than once. There’s the time at the gym when I was working the lat pulldown at 130 pounds and the repairman fixing the next machine raised an eyebrow, "You are surprisingly strong." Or the time I tried a new lat machine in a colleague’s housing area, not noticing the weights were set to 45 kg (about 100 pounds), and easily pulled it without thinking, causing my colleague to suggest, "You are too strong." Or when I carried two 38-pound boxes of cat litter—one in each hand—up our 17 steps, to the surprise of my new tenant watching below, who did not know (now she does) that I do this a couple of times a month. Or the time a neighbor, 45 years younger than me, offered to help take our heavy garbage can down the steep driveway—and couldn’t budge it. I did it myself, and she simply laughed. And there are all the times I’ve picked up a package at the post office when the clerk warned me that "it is very heavy"—only for me to smile, shake my head, respond, "no, it's not," hoist it onto my shoulder or place it under my arm, and walk out without a problem.
Being strong isn’t just something I work on in the gym. Taking care of my daughter gives me real-life, everyday opportunities to stay strong—whether it’s lifting her, carrying her wheelchair up/down the stairs, or helping her transfer between chair lifts. At one point I used to carry her between the two chair lifts, but thanks to that clever occupational therapist, we now use the wheelchair instead, which gives her more independence and gives me fewer unnecessary lifts.
This could feel like a burden. It could feel like frustration. But I don’t see it that way. I have a real, live gym at home—one that gives me just as much training as any set of barbells or pulleys. I’m grateful for it all.
Because staying strong isn’t about lifting for the sake of lifting. It’s about living.
And I plan to keep doing both.
For more posts about/from Grandma's Ninja Training Diary, click HERE.
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