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Did The Earth Move for You?
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Eleven-year-old Angela was stricken with a debilitating disease
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involving her nervous system.
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She was unable to walk and her movement
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was restricted in other ways as well.
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The doctors did not hold out much hope
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of her ever recovering from this illness.
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They predicted she’d spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair.
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They said that few, if any,
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were able to come back to normal after contracting this disease.
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The little girl was undaunted.
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There, lying in her hospital bed,
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she would vow to anyone who’d listen
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that she was definitely going to be walking again someday.
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She was transferred to a specialized rehabilitation hospital
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in the San Francisco Bay area.
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Whatever therapies could be applied to her case were used.
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The doctors were charmed by her undefeatable spirit.
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They taught her about imaging —
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about seeing herself walking.
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If it would do nothing else,
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it would at least give her hope
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and something positive to do
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in the long waking hours in her bed.
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Angela would work as hard as possible
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in physical therapy and in exercise sessions.
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But she worked just as hard lying there faithfully doing her imaging,
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visualizing herself moving, moving, moving!
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One day,
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as she was straining with all her might to imagine her legs moving again,
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it seemed as though a miracle happened:
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The bed moved!
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It began to move around the room!
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She screamed out,
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“Look what I’m doing!
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Look! Look! I can do it! I moved, I moved!”
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Of course,
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at this very moment everyone else in the hospital was screaming, too,
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and running for cover.
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People were screaming,
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equipment was falling and glass was breaking.
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You see, it was the recent San Francisco earthquake.
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But don’t tell that to Angela.
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She’s convinced that she did it.
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And now only a few years later,
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she’s back in school.
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You see, anyone who can shake the earth between San Francisco and Oakland
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can conquer a little disease, can’t they?