Hi everyone. My name is Lynne, I am 49 years old and have a 14 year old son. We live in Midland. We are very fortunate, through the generosity of many people, to be the recipients of an assisted membership to the Y.

My Y is the place that I come to feel better.

I live with chronic invisible pain conditions, one of them being Fibromyalgia. When I was first diagnosed, my son was much younger, I was in so much daily pain and always exhausted. It feels like having the flu, multiplied by 100 and then having a Mack Truck use your body as a parking lot! Living with this condition can be very lonely. You lose the life and ability to do so many things you had hoped to be able to do, grieving for what could have been. But then we must look for the new path on our life journey.

I was doing my best to raise my son living on a very limited income and I had heard from a friend about the Y welcoming everyone. When I was assisted financially to receive a Y membership for my son and I, it was so nice to know we had somewhere to go and where I could be among other adults, while my son and I could exercise and make new friends.

When my son was not old enough to be at the Y on his own I would be in the gym with him. There have been times when my pain levels were too high for me to do anything other than sit on the floor and roll a ball to him. The main thing is we were having fun together.

I feel that being able to come to my Y helped me get out the house and helped my son to meet some friends and have some exercise too.

If was to meet a donor of the YMCA, I would like to say a HUGE “thank you” for helping me to get out the house. You gave me the chance to help myself feel better and play with my son.

With thanks,

Lynne Smith