The links here: Part 1 and Part 2 of the “It” story would 
be a great place to start before reading this post.  

If you aren’t into going back and reading them, no biggie.

Please do me a favor and just skip this one too,
or likely you will be very confused by it all.

The last part of this story is just as important as
the middle part of the story.   Because this part 3
was the tell tale convincing that my heart apparently
needed – ha!

So here’s the ‘rest of the story’…


*******

Once I decided to go Gluten-Free {after the confirming
words of that man in the DIY store} I did not cheat.

Not even once. 

I had no desire to.

I’m one of those “do it all or don’t do it at all” kind of chicks.
Not too much ‘middle of the road’ with me.  So in keeping 
with who I am, I dove in hook, line and sinker.

I felt so much better within two days that I was astounded.
It was such a significant difference in my noggin’s fog
that I was totally convinced that I would not go back to the 
“old way” – no matter what!

About two weeks into eating Gluten-Free, it was early,
early, early morning and my cell phone rang.  Dw was still in Africa and Savannah had already left for work.  

Our home had that early morning quiet as everyone was just starting to stir.  Well, except for Ruby-girlfriend who was up keeping mommy company.  Ruby and I had hugged Savannah good-bye before work and sent her on her way.  

About 25 minutes later the sound of my cell ringing jolted me.  
Kind of weird such an early morning call.  I was surprised 
to see Savannah’s number come up and got a bit of a panic 
in me.  She was in route and definitely shouldn’t be calling.  

I answered with, “What’s wrong?  Are you okay?”  
She was crying.  She’d been in a car accident on the
freeway.  I found out where and ran with my cell to 
Graham who was now sitting at the counter eating breakfast.  

On an interesting note:  It turns out that the young man who 
hit her was hurrying to court where he was to appear for, of all things – 

a traffic violation. 

Of course he was.   

I grabbed Ruby, put Liberty in charge and threw a couple of 
things in Ruby’s diaper bag as she had not had breakfast yet.  

Graham, Ruby and I hurried to where the accident was.  
As I waited for Graham, Savannah, the police and the
young man to sort through stuff I was able to climb in 
the back to sit and feed Ruby a bite to eat. 

One of the things I had thrown in the diaper bag was those
little “Puffs” {kind of like Cheerios} that melt in a little 
one’s mouth.  Although I had given them once to Ruby 
before I had never tasted them.  It was just such a joy to
see her trying this new mouth sensation {Remember they 
said she’d never do anything?} 

Since I had not eaten anything yet that morning, I popped one in my mouth.  In the next couple of minutes I ate approximately 
2 or 3 more.  

Suddenly Savannah panicked, 

“Mom!! 
Those have wheat in them!”

Oh my goodness! I hadn’t known they had wheat. It had
never even crossed my mind that they might.  I had been
completely distracted by the accident, the situation,  what 
it all meant besides thinking of getting ahold of Dw over 
in Africa, and had never even thought that perhaps they 
had wheat in them.  

I answered back to Savannah,
“Well at least I only had maybe 3 or 4.”  

In my mind I thought,  

“Whew! Whew! Whew! Since I’ve only been Gluten-Free 
for 2 weeks it’s probably not even all out of my system.”


I was actually a bit annoyed at myself for not even thinking 
about whether they contained gluten or not.  Ugh. 


Although I had removed all the gluten stuff from the pantry,
it had never even crossed my mind about these little things.


I went back to feeding Ruby and got lost in all the 
preoccupation of the accident and all that entailed.

Within minutes we were heading toward home. This time though Graham was driving Savannah in her frame-bent, 
badly damaged car and I was alone with Ruby.   

There was so much on my mind as Ruby and I made our way 
toward home…..and not one fiber of my being remembered that I had eaten the 3 or 4 little “puffs”.  

About 10 minutes into the drive toward home I began to feel horrible.  I can’t even adequately put into words how horribly
yukky I started to feel.   

I remember thinking to myself:  

This is so weird.  What is wrong with me? I woke up feeling so good!  I am suddenly feeling absolutely horrible.  I can’t even describe it.

Now dear friends, if you were an up-close person in my life
you would know that not only do I never complain about the
constant pain I am in, I never, ever, ever tell anyone when I
feel yukky.  It is Dw who will occasionally say, “You’re not
feeling good, are you?”  

Even in the privacy of our own lives, I just keep my pain,
discomfort and yukky stuff to myself.  

But rest assured, in all my years, I had never, ever, ever,
ever, ever felt this way or this horrible before.  

Not ever.  

As I drove a bit more down the freeway I began to think,
“When I get home I need to have Graham take me to the ER.
I think I am actually not going to make it.” 

I know that sounds terribly dramatic, but I later questioned Dw,

“Babe, you have been with me for 37 years.  
Have you ever heard me say that I thought I wasn’t 
going to make it?”

He shook his head ‘no’ and said, “Not even close.”  

True enough, in 37 years there had never been a time.  

And whether it surprises anyone or not, not even for a 
nanosecond did the 3 or 4 little Puffs come to mind.  I never
thought one thing about them.  They were so tiny, 
inconsequential in my opinion that I gave them no 
thought whatsoever – not even a speck!!  My mind was
so preoccupied with all that had just transpired and now
wondering if I was in the midst of some medical emergency
that needed immediate emergency attention.

When we all reached home I opted not to say anything
to Graham {told ya!} and I went to the kitchen to find 
something to pamper our sweet Savannah!

I felt horrible, but got busy serving her.  When she was 
settled on the couch and pampered a bit I went back to thinking about whatever in the world was going on with me.

I was so perplexed and feeling horrific.  I debated.  Should 
I tell Graham to take me to the ER? I waited reasoning that he wouldn’t want to leave because Savannah had just had 
the accident.

As the Lord would have it, before long Abigail called me
about Savannah’s accident.  And because I was so concerned
with how I felt, I fessed up to her and just said, “I’m not 
really feeling very good.”  

Abigail questioned, “What’s wrong mom?”  

“I’m not sure.  I just feel horrible.  I woke up feeling so great this morning too!  I don’t know what went wrong.”  [Still didn’t think
about the Puffs at all.]

Her next question:  

“Did you have any wheat?”


I gasped!


“No way!  I had 3 or 4 of those little tiny melt-in-your
mouth Puff-things of Ruby’s.  Completely by accident.
It couldn’t be that.  No way!”

I was finding the whole thought incredulous.

She told me she thought that’s precisely what it was.

I couldn’t argue with her.  It made perfect sense.  

The timing.  The innocence of it all.  I never had even 
given it one thought.  And surprisingly, my head had 
become very foggy, but I hadn’t even correlated the two.

There is no doubt that Abi’s phone call was 
God’s perfect timing. 

Hence, there is 
no way, 
no how, 
not a chance, 
nada,
that I will ever eat gluten for any reason.  

Ever.

I am gluten-free.   Period.  For the rest of my life.

I will never knowingly take gluten again.  

The thought freaks me out.  

And if that means never eating anywhere out again, so be it.

And that my friends, is how I have begun to get “it” back.
I feel better than I’ve felt in years.  I still have pain throughout 
my body every day, but I am trusting that that will also continue 
to heal, by God’s amazing grace.  


If you have struggled with some of the things I’ve mentioned,
I encourage you to just try for 30 days being gluten-free.