at 25 years old, standing at 5 foot 7 weighing 110lbs, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes... I've lived a life most people don't ever experience in a full lifetime.
my name is Riley, Riley McPhee. I have a 9 year old daughter named Madison, and parents in their mid-sixties. I was a late-in-life child born into a picture perfect loving family in Sault Ste Marie Ontario, Canada. My mom was 38 years old and my dad was 40 years old when baby Riley was welcomed into the world.
my parents met in their early 20's in community musical theatre. My mom, an elementary school teacher, and my dad, a general manager of several casinos, lived what you would refer to as textbook lives. I was a very wanted child and wasnt easy to have. based on those things, I was very sheltered growing up so to speak. My parents were far too over protective.
through out my childhood and youth, I was highly involved in competitive dance. keeping high grades and dancing were my main focuses growing up.
My other and quite over powering responsibility was to be my dad's primary caregiver along with my mom. my dad opened casinos all over the world until he got a job as our cities casino general manager when I was 7. he then moved back home with my mom and I and literally within 3 months, he got very sick.
a lifelong diabetic, not properly caring for himself took a major toll on him. he went blind overnight, had kidney cancer, had a kidney removed, got diagnosed with congestive heart failure, eventually was forced to start kidney dialysis... and that was just the tip of the iceberg. all those issues along with the usual day to day blood sugar checks and regulations as well as 4 very time sensitive insulin needles a day (breakfast,lunch,dinner and2 different kinds at bedtime), was quite the responsibility for a 7 year old Riley.
I would come home every day at lunch to feed my dad , check his blood sugar level and give him his insulin injection from the age of 7 and up. I remember so many occasions where I would come home to find him passed out, convulsing on the ground in what is called a diabetic coma. scary things for anyone especially a young girl. I'd have to call him an ambulance...