Originally posted on facebook, shared here with the author’s kind permission

Some days are so hard. Please continue your prayers for my friend, Bambi, who is fighting ‘like a girl’ to recover from her second Lyme stroke. She’s got a long way to go and more hard battles to fight. Her beautiful face will return to my cover tomorrow, but for today I want to honor the life of another Lyme friend who has lost the fight.

You know, we all look pretty good. We don’t have deformities or scars to be outward proof of how sick we are. We wear this armor of courage, and we smile through horrific pain and reply ‘I’m fine’ because if we don’t do that we lose everyone.

The truth, as with any chronic illness, is that we are tired, we are in terrible pain ALL THE TIME, and we are SCARED! Our friends in this fight, the people who truly understand what life with Lyme is like, are dying around us. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m not ready to go there yet.

No one has a choice in when it is their time to die, but we don’t even have acknowledgement that we are sick. Our government is so deep in criminal denial, they know the truth, the evidence is everywhere and is so powerful, but the government somehow sidesteps around their liability.

There is so much blood on the hands of people in power, yet nothing is done because admitting it would put people in high places into jail. I know no one wants to hear this. People do not like conspiracy theories or speaking poorly of our country.

It is very clear to all lymies that our family and friends who are not afflicted with this plague are tired of hearing it from us so they ignore us or push us away. I try not to put so much doom and gloom on my page because it’s not good for me (or anyone else), but today I will wear my heart on my sleeve because I’ve lost another friend and I’m so scared.

Rest in Peace, Kelly. Today I will allow myself to mourn. Tomorrow I will pick up my sword and begin the fight again, because you should be here, Kelly. Your life really mattered. I know God sees our plight, and some day we will understand the master plan of all of this.

Today I just grieve….

Rory is a Lyme patient and advocate, and a beautiful human being.  This post quickly touched a lot of hearts on a day that a lot of hearts were hurting.  Somewhere on a similar thread, someone’s comment stuck with me that, “suicide is a lyme issue” and that is something we come to know through the losses, and there have been many this year.  You can see past photos of Rory in posts here and possibly on NorthernRockiesLyme.org (and their respective facebook pages) at the Philadelphia MayDay rallies at the October 2014 IDWeek conference, and from the Arlington MayDay protest from May 2015.

The following graphics were shared on each Lymies’ respective pages with the request to share and use as cover photos.

If you have trouble downloading them here or finding them on facebook, they are (or will be) also saved as cover photos on the Invisibly Lyme Montana facebook page (as well as any others people create that I see).

A memorial page for Kelly has been created on the blog “What is Lyme?” that will be added to with additional details.

Thank you, Rory, for allowing me to post this.  And thanks to Kory James for allowing me to use your graphic in this post.