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Trudy Rose: Mother of Daughter who has Scleroderma

She is the only daughter I have.

Hi my name is Trudy Smith and my Jackie has scleroderma. I just want you all to know that my time and energy is to be with my girl. She is the only daughter I have. I just wish that there was a cure for the disease.

I have to maintain my own time alone so my girl will not see me with tears because I know better not to stress her out as she may worry about me. It is very important for me that my daughter is okay. I have been the caregiver for her when she needed me. I helped her out a lot especially with house cleaning and watching my two beautiful granddaughters.

I now live on Vancouver Island and my daughter moved to Alberta so it is harder for me to see her as I constantly worry about her and my granddaughters and son-in- law. My son-in-law is awesome. He thinks the world of my daughter and I could not ask for anything more. I am so proud of him.

I was confused about scleroderma when my daughter first told me. I did not understand it until I got on this site and thoughts of losing her really scared me. I was all of a sudden blaming myself, thinking I gave it to her and saying that I should have it instead of her. She gave me a lot of information on scleroderma and Raynaud's. She is my angel and my rock.

I had recently lost two in my family this year and my daughter was so supportive even though she was dealing with her scleroderma. But if it had not been for my girl who helped me then as my health was down and the loss of my spouse took a toll on me.

I really hope and dream that things will come to the best for this disease like a cure and medication. I want my daughter to be comfortable as much as she can.

I would like to have caregivers to please email me. I would love to support you also and be of some help in listening with a lot of patience. Just when you are going through tough times focus on your babies or children because they are pure and innocent. You will get a lot of energy from them. I did when my daughter and grandchildren helped me. May god bless each and everyone of you. Just remember you all are my sunshine just like my daughter is my sunshine.

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ISN Artist: Sherrill Knaggs (In Loving Memory)

Sherrill Knaggs, ISN Artist, created the digital photo to illustrate the story on this page. Sherrill lived in New Zealand. Her story was featured in ISN's book, Voices of Scleroderma Volume 2.

ISN Story Editor: Judith Thompson Devlin

Judith Thompson Devlin is the ISN Story Editor for this story. She is also lead editor of the ISN's wonderful Voices of Scleroderma book series!

SCLERO.ORG was the world's leading nonprofit for trustworthy research, support, education and awareness for scleroderma and related illnesses from 1998 to 2021. It was a grassroots movement from the original Scleroderma from A to Z web site, which was founded by Shelley Ensz. We were a 501(c)(3) U.S.-based public charitable foundation. We closed this web site and our nonprofit agency in April 2021.