Journey of hope in wheelchair to arena floor
Patrick Springer
The Forum - 04/05/2008
Cheree Schneider left home at 6 a.m. Friday and rode 335 miles
to the Alerus Center in Grand Forks, N.D., in the hope of
meeting presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama.
Along the way, she stopped in Fargo for a visit with her
doctor, before continuing her 5=-hour car journey with her
mother at the wheel.
But the trip for the Sawyer, N.D., resident was much longer,
and more challenging than mere miles and hours can convey.
Schneider has made three trips to the ER and been hospitalized
twice since Easter - as recently as this week - to treat a
buildup of fluids around her heart.
For four years, she's been battling connective tissue
diseases, a syndrome of health problems caused by an immune
system gone haywire.
For four years, she's drawn inspiration from Barack Obama,
whom she first learned about before he was a national figure or
presidential candidate.
The story begins in Chicago, where she'd gone to a medical
center for testing to see whether she would qualify for an
experimental bone-marrow transplant treatment.
Exhausted, Schneider plopped down on the bed in her motel room
and turned on the TV to the Oprah Winfrey show. The guest was a
young state legislator from Chicago running for the U.S. Senate
who had a story she found inspiring.
"He didn't have a silver plate," she says, recalling Obama's
humble roots, with a white mother from Kansas and a father from
Kenya. "He came from nothing and rose above it all."
Schneider has followed Obama's rise since then, leading to his
keynote address to the North Dakota Democratic-NPL convention
Friday. When she learned he would speak, she became determined
to be there.
She wrote letters and e-mails and made countless phone calls, including to staff
members of the North Dakota congressional delegation, and North
Dakota staff members of the Obama campaign.
Just as Schneider began to lose hope, she learned Thursday
that the wheels were turning and people were working to get her
a brief meeting with Obama. In a wheelchair, tethered to a
portable oxygen tank, she took her place in a handicapped
section at the Alerus Center to await word.
"I want to shake his hand and tell him how his words of hope
have kept me going," she says.
She did. The moment came late Friday afternoon, before the
speech.
It turns out 335 miles isn't so long after all.
________________________________
Readers can reach Forum reporter Patrick Springer
at (701) 241-5522 |
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