I Won’t Back Down..
How Being Stubborn Gave Me My Life Back
To borrow words from Tom Petty’s famous song that he wrote after an arsonist set his house on fire:
“I Won’t Back Down”
Well I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
You can stand me up at the gates of Hell
But I won’t back down
No I’ll stand my ground
Won’t be turned around
And I’ll keep this world from dragging me down
Gonna stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out
Hey I, I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Well I know what’s right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around
but I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out
Hey I, I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out
Hey I, I’ll stand my ground
And I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
Written by Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne
I was able to shoot the photo of those giraffes with my cheap little Nikon Coolpix camera using only my right hand because I never backed down after being “stood up at the gates of Hell”.
My house was never burned down, but my brain did start bleeding during the sixth month of my second pregnancy when my son was not quite 2 years old.
I faced the gates of Hell as a 35 year old, disabled mother of a newborn and a 2 year old. I sat in a wheelchair and watched hired help care for my babies in my home. I stubbornly refused to stay there. I was depressed, but I also knew that my sons needed me to be their mother. I’m sure my husband could have found a suitable substitute had I taken to my bed and stayed there, but no one is as good as your real mother.
