Celebrate Swedish with Anthony Armada, FACHE, CEO highlighted a conversation with he had with me earlier that fall at the Heart Walk in September 2015. I was a few weeks post-heart surgery and eager to volunteer at the American Heart Association Heart Walk. Most importantly, I wanted to stop by the Swedish booth and thank each person for their service and their care. That’s when I met Tony.
I can remember exactly where I was sitting when my friend Libby Sundgren got a copy of this speech from the Celebrate Swedish Gala 2015 and I listened to it. You see, one of my besties Erin Maude, who was actually still an acquaintance at this point in my timeline, had attended the gala and recognized that Tony was talking about ME in his speech. That’s how Erin found out I had recently had emergency heart surgery.
To this point, I had been very private about the issue, careful not to post anything on social media. Why? Was I full of fear? Embarrassed? Worried what other people would think? Worried about other people would say. To be honest, I’m not really sure. It was simply such a life changing time that I wasn’t ready to share all that had gone done and some big truths I finally realized about myself.
Since this time, I’ve been very open about my heart disease and the changes I’ve made to my lifestyle, most importantly being balanced and stress free. (Healthy stress, yep still have that, I just got rid of all of the toxicity that had existed for far too long.) My mom reminds me she had a vision when I was much younger, that I would one day be a public speaker of some sort. I remember thinking how odd it was I was even making it into other peoples public speaking. Maybe it’s time to put more focus on this public speaking thing. After all, opportunities to speak keep presenting themselves.
You have my attention, big guy upstairs, you have my attention.
