Source:
"50 Secrets of the longest living people with diabetes",
Coldberg and Edelman, Marlowe & Co,
2007, pp xxxvi-xxxvii.xxxxx
Gladys C. Lester Dull, a Walla Walla, Washington
resident since 1938 who has been on insulin
injections just slightly longer than Bob Cleveland
has-since November of 1924, a couple of months
before she turned 7 years old. To our knowledge,
she is the longest-living person with diabetes to
date. (2007-1924=83 years on insulin)
Born in North Dakota, she lost her birth parents
during a flu epi- demic in 1920 when she was only
3 years old. Fortunately, she and one other
sisters were soon adopted and raised by some
neighbors who were part of the farming community
there. She remembers feeling sick before her
diagnosis and needing to urinate all the time.
After traveling the nine miles from where they
lived in the country to the nearest doctor, she
was diagnosed with diabetes, but the small-town
doctor didn't know how to treat it. He suggested
that her adoptive parents take her to the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, which they
consented to do. Gladys remembers the long train
trip from her home to the clinic, where she was
immediately admitted to the hospital for treatment
with the newly available, Lilly-made insulin.
"I remember the first shot I got and being scared
of it," Gladys recalls more than eight decades
later. "The needles back then were a lot more
painful than they are now-and a lot more
expensive." Her mother had to go to classes at the
Mayo Clinic to learn what to do for her, including
weighing wax figures of food that were a certain
number of grams. "My mother weighed everything out
for me after that," she says. "She'd let me have
one gram more than what I was supposed to have."
Since she wasn't allowed to eat candy anymore, her
grandfather used to buy her a newspaper to read
(for the comics) instead, which almost made up for
the one piece of candy a week she used to get on a
trip into town.
Gladys has enjoyed the support of family and
friends for all of her life with diabetes,
including her husband, George Dull, with whom she
enjoyed a 59-year marriage that ended in 2002 with
his passing. Married in 1943 during WWII, she and
her husband (who was born in 1915) were separated
for two and a half years while he was sta- tioned
overseas with his Army unit. Later, after his
return, they moved to Walla Walla, where she has
lived ever since and worked part-time in a
portrait studio for 30 years. At the age of 30,
she gave birth to her only child, Norm Dull, who
lives in a nearby town in Washington State.
Amazingly, she has outlived all four of her
brothers and sisters, two of whom were older, the
other two younger, and all diabetes-free. Her last
sister recently died from Alzheimer's disease (of
which Gladys has absolutely no signs, even though
the risk is possibly higher in people with
diabetes), "After seeing what my sister went
through, I would much rather be diabetic than have
Alzheimer's," Gladys says.
This spunky 90-year-old with diabetes attributes
most other suc- cess to being active most of her
life and to sticking to her diet. "When I was
younger, I did everything-horseback riding,
cycling, snow- roobiling, motorcycle riding-I
always stayed active." In addition, because of her
early training, to this day Gladys can still tell
approx- imately how much a serving of any food
weighs, and she still watches her portions
strictly. "I give my mother credit for that," she
says. "She was strict with me, and I thank her for
it now." Her son also credits Gladys with raising
him on her diet, saying, "I still eat lots of
veggies, thanks to Mom." Her diet doesn't vary
much, and neither do her insulin requirements.
In all likelihood, another other secrets is the
fact that she has reli- giously taken her insulin
shots since they first saved her life back in.
1924. "I have never missed a shot in all these
years," she affirms. "To date, I've had over
60,000 of them." Taking injections is just a small
price to pay for her longevity, though. May we all
strive to live so long and do so well with
diabetes!
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