I received a very nice letter yesterday from a good friend of Cindy’s. There were some really insightful thoughts in there, ” I have learned that there are no coincidences in life and that synchronicity is why things happen in the order they happen.” Thoughts like these have impact to those that have lost someone in a sudden accident like we have been through. There are so many thoughts of how even just the smallest change in the routine of that day, that hour, those few minutes and seconds before the accident could have changed everything. It is also interesting to me that the subject of that statement was actually how we deal our lives moving forward after the experiences we have been through rather than looking back at the events that have forced us to be where we are now. That is one of the difficult things that I’ve had to deal with in this healing process, the fact that some of the realizations that may help to accept what has happened are sometimes contrary to the ones that will help us to heal and go forward.
Another thought was of a similar sense of synchronicity. “Think of the times when all of sudden something reminds you of Cindy and at that moment a physical reminder comes in your path.” So this morning when I was reading my daily news I came across an item by Jeneane over at Allied where today she is talking about quitting the smoking habit. I was reading along and came upon the name of an expert she quoted, Linda Hyder Ferry, M.D., M.P.H. The thing that struck me was the M.P.H. and the memories of my favorite R.D., C.D.E., M.P.H., Cindy.
Cindy went to college at Southern Illinois University (SIU) studying nutrition with the goal of becoming a Registered Dietitian, or R.D. After her four years at SIU she still had more work and studies before she could become Registered. She worked as a nutritionist in public health in the federal Women Infants and Children (WIC) program. She really enjoyed the sense of helping the young women who truly cared about their health and the health of their babies. To be eligible to become Registered she either had to go through an internship and/or continue her education. She went to the University of South Florida to get her Masters in Public Health and became a Charter Alumnus and one of the first 100 graduates to receive an M.P.H. at USF. Along with her RD and MPH she went on to become a Certified Diabetes Educator. All that studying and hard work led to one of her favorite jobs working with her friends doing health screenings. One of those friends being the one that sent me the note that started this little story about synchronicity and the coincidences in life.