I feel that I need to share my story with you so that you understand what shaped me, who I am and why helping YOU take control of your own and your loved onesâ health is the single thing that I am the most passionate about in all the world. When we meet, I will also be pulling YOUR entire story out of you, so sharing mine first just seems like the fair thing to do. So here goes:
When I was 12 years old, my Dad started having some difficulty walking and some random tremors and lameness in his hands and legs. He had always had back problems, so these mild discomforts were dismissed as âpinched nervesâ, âstressâ, the usual things that we quickly shrug off as ânothingâ. Nothing that a few trips to the physiotherapist couldn't fix. And so he went to the Physiotherapist... And he went again... and again... but the discomforts increased and he was referred to a specialist.
Now let me interrupt myself right there and briefly highlight the tremendous role that my Dad played in my life. I was an absolute âDaddyâs Girlâ, as most of us girls are... but for me it was much deeper. My mother made a point of emphasizing (for as long as I can remember) that I was an unwanted baby. Iâll spare you the details, thatâs not important. What is relevant, is that she was also an alcoholic and a narcissist with a violent streak as thick as a tree. My Dad intervened in drunken beatings when he was around, but as an engineer he worked long hours. Dad was my protector, my guide and at times, the only person who made me feel loved. He was my Everything.
So thatâs that - let me get back to Dadâs story - and mine.
Shortly before my 13th birthday, after seeing the specialist, my Dad was diagnosed with âMultiple Sclerosisâ. This was in 1996. He was only 42 years old. We were told that MS was manageable and, due to my Dadâs successful career, we were able to get the best care for him that Western medicine could buy at the time. Only... he kept getting worse.
In my Gr8 year, when I turned 14, Dad could no longer drive. He had to stop working. Multiple specialists later, he was finally correctly diagnosed. It was not MS. A far darker monster was slowly killing my Daddy. He had Motor Neuron Disease.
Back then, he was one of only a small handful of people in South Africa diagnosed with this awful disease and people visited from all over the world to interview him, examine him, make a spectacle of him. Our family enjoyed the kind of âcelebrity statusâ that no one wants. I got rebellious. My younger brother withdrew from society and Mom drank. So much. So often. Dad got sicker. We all did, in a way. Strangers flooded our space and âfriendsâ disappeared.
By my 15th birthday, my brother and I spent a considerable amount of time being taken care of by neighbors and, in particular, a family who had been friends of my parentsâ for as long as I could remember. I am still close friends with my un-biological sister from this family. When it became starkly clear that my Dad really was dying, my friend would console me and give me strength, day after day. She used to pray with me, and when the hurt and anger got so bad that I renounced God completely, she prayed for me.
No medicine was helping him. No doctor, no church and no God made any difference. Dad was dying. In my young mind, I had to seek some level of control in my out-of-control circumstances. Home was awful so I practically lived in doctors offices and libraries, driving everyone crazy searching for alternative medicines. I learned about Reiki. I learned about Homeopathy. I learned about Hypnoses, Reflexology, Aromatherapy, Accupuncture... any straw that I could grasp at, I grabbed hold of furiously and they all crumbled in my hands.
Dad died in 2000. I was 17. What was left of my fractured world crumbled to dust beneath my feet. My un-biological family and âsisterâcarried me.
And then, less than a year after my Dad was gone, her Dad - my âother Dadâ - relapsed with prostate cancer. He was gone within a year. Allopathic (Western) medicine couldn't save him any more than it saved my own father. It was my turn to carry my âsisterâ. I did not, I was too broken myself. She forgave me, I tried to make up for it in my clumsy way and we both just kept on keeping on.
We were both still reeling from our recent losses and then her Mom - my âother Momâ - got diagnosed with the same monster that had taken my Dad. Motor Neuron Disease. SERIOUSLY?? By the time I was 22, I had lost 3 parents to dread diseases and the 4th (my mother) to a colourful assortment of mental imbalances. As you can imagine, I was a raving hypochondriac by then! I never stopped educating myself on natural medicine. In 2019, my poor mother was suddenly taken by a heart attack. She was only 60 years old. Another loss that could have possibly been delayed if better lifestyle choices were made. The irony is that my mother had always attempted to make healthy choices too (aside from the booze), due to losing the same people I lost!
Only in my 30s did I discover Yoga and Ayurveda. This ancient knowledge resonated and awakened something that I thought had died with my parents, inside me. I discovered that my Soul had only been sleeping and the discovery of Ayurveda brought me suddenly and fully alive in what I can only describe as a Big Bang Moment!
Death is as much a part of life as is breathing air. I now accept that, but I do not accept that suffering from dis-ease is a natural part of living. That is why I have chosen to live and breathe Yoga and Ayurveda, and teach it to anyone who will listen. I have battled mental health issues myself. I have dealt with physical dis-ease, obesity, premature menopause & infertility, diabetes, high blood pressure, LOW blood pressure, all the regular garden variety ailments that plague our modern society, myself. I GET it. And I get YOU and what YOUâRE dealing with too - be it your own health, or the health of a loved one.
That is why, when you come to see me, you will get all of me. My time, my energy, my expertise, but most of all, my heart.
Now, it is up to you. When you are ready to take control of your life, your health, your very destiny, come and see me. I look forward to guiding you and helping you get your life back, the same way that I did.
With Love and Gratitude,
Elanie
