Our StoryMember Spotlight – Helen Swanson
KEEP ON, KEEPING ON
Helen Swanson has lived in numerous cities and towns throughout the Midwest, and everywhere she goes she brings with her a keen sense of service.
“I’ve always tried to help people and to have a servant’s heart. That’s just what I do because you never know what tomorrow’s going to bring. There are a lot of people my age with pretty severe physical problems who’re really struggling, and I try to do whatever I can to help.” In fact, several months ago she found herself trying to break up a fight in front of a bank. “It happened right in front of me—I couldn’t just ignore it. One of the men had his glasses knocked off, and they landed right by my car, so I got out of my car, grabbed the glasses and told those two to knock it off.” In other words, this is a woman who stands on principle.
“I was born in Joliet, Illinois but we moved to South Bend, Indiana when I was six months old, so that’s where I call home. As you might guess, I’m a huge Notre Dame fan. My other love is babies. I’m planning to volunteer at the local YMCA daycare because I just love being around them so much. When I’m out, and I see babies, I almost have a fit.”
After growing up in Indiana, Helen got a job as a teletype operator and load planner for United Airlines right out of high school in 1957. “This was back in the days of prop planes, and I was in charge of weighing each to make sure they got off the ground. Four years later I got married, and in 1965 my husband and I moved to Sandusky, Ohio. He was with a freight company, so we moved quite a bit; first to Marshall, Michigan in 1969, then to New Berlin, Wisconsin in 1972 and finally to Hermitage, Tennessee right outside of Nashville in 1973.”
“While we were in Tennessee, I went through nurses training, and after we were divorced in 1975, I ended up moving back to South Bend in the late 70s with my son and daughter and working almost 20 years as an LPN on a medical surgery floor. It was a small hospital, but we really provided great care. By 1998 my daughter was married with a family and career of her own, and I moved to Pennsylvania to help care for my grandchildren.”
“These days I live in New Hope, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, where I’ve been for 12 years—the last 10 in an independent senior living facility. When I first moved here, I worked for two home care agencies as a nursing coordinator. That was right about the time I became a TriVita customer. I was working late one night, and I heard James Robison on TV talking about Super B-12, so I ordered a box. Well, I felt an immediate difference in my energy and my mood right from the start—and I still do. Ever since then, the first thing I do when I get up is drink a tall glass of water and take a B-12 tablet. I can’t imagine being without it.”
“I have had my share of health problems, including breast cancer, and for many years I had extremely high blood pressure, too. At one time I was on about six different medications for that alone, and in 2009 I was put in the hospital when my numbers hit 265 over 120. But the doctors took out my adrenal glands, and now I’m down to one blood pressure medication a day, which helps because I’m very sensitive to medicine.
“I currently take VisionGuard and Omega3 Prime, but last August I also started taking MyoHealth, and there’s no way to explain how it has made me feel. I have a herniated disc in my back that was very uncomfortable, and now I can do almost anything I want pain free. There’s none in my back, none in my hips, and none in my knees. Plus, within two days it killed my appetite, and I’ve lost 18 pounds! It’s just an absolutely wonderful product. Sometimes I take it in the morning and sometimes in the afternoon as well for an energy boost. If somebody had to take everything away from me, they couldn’t take my B-12 or MyoHealth.”
