I must admit that taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Walk last Saturday in Bloomfield provided a flashback to my youth.

My mother, who passed away in February 2000 (she was only 61), was a childhood diabetic. My sisters and I have a lot of memories of my mother being forced to give herself a shot before every meal, and dad getting her something to eat in the middle of the night if her "sugar acted up."

But she never allowed that to keep her from being mom and keeping our lives as normal as possible. That is, until she had a stroke three years before she passed away. We were told her stroke was caused by a small vein in her head that closed, the result of years and years of taking insulin.

She struggled for three years being partially paralyzed, and still being forced to deal with her diabetes.

I'm told major progress has been made in the past 50-plus years that my mom was first diagnosed. That's great news, but more needs to be done.

That's why such walks as last Saturday are put together.

The folks who organized the event deserve a major pat on the back. They had hoped to raise in the $5,000 neighborhood, but they went way above that mark. The latest count was nearly $25,000.

Thank you.