Watch Shonette's See the Person video here.

Being a single mom of 3 children is not easy, but by the grace of God, I've been able to just keep trucking. I've got that smile on my face!

I was just living a normal life - going to work full time, coming home, doing my daily chores with my children, and then unfortunately a situation occurred.

I was walking into the bank, and then a little tingling sensation started to come on and I started swaying left to right. There was a lady who had seen me swaying back and forth, and she came behind me and helped me lay down. At that point I blacked out. I woke up in an ambulance about 10 minutes after I collapsed in the bank, not aware of what was going on.

After that, my whole life changed. The doctor advised me that my license was going to get suspended and I thought, 'Oh my God! What am I going to do?'

I couldn't work because the job that I was doing was around heavy machinery and for my safety, I had to make the decision to stay home. 

When it first started, having my license taken away from me, my job taken away from me, I felt like life was done. But I looked at it and I realized that this all happened for a reason. I was the type of person that would just keep going, I can't stop. Can't stop. And this, by the grace of God, I feel like it was my time to slow down.  It gave me a different outlook on life.

When I first had to explain to my daughters what epilepsy was, they had a lot of questions. And it was hard, as a parent, to give them all the information that they needed. They were asking questions like, “Mommy, if you have a seizure, what does it look like?” So I would say, “Mommy would probably start gazing, or just stop talking, at that point, always ask mommy ‘are you ok, do you need anything?’” And now when I have a seizure, they do. So sitting down and explaining to my children exactly what to do in certain events, if I should have a seizure, how to protect them, how to protect myself, and to not feel scared. Be brave. 

I'm still able to live a normal life. I got back my license, I got back my life. And now I'm transitioning back into the workforce and finding what I feel my true purpose is. I know now that I want to be at service to people, to help people and educate people.

I can say that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. No matter what situation you are in, whether it's good or bad, there is always a silver lining at the end of it. We can still live; no matter what you go through, we can still live.

#SeethePerson 

*stories have been condensed and edited

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