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Michael Collins: Winning Against Diabetes

 

Michael Collins skied and snowboarded down mountains all over the world. He went rock climbing in Japan. He rode a mountain bike, hard, on the back roads of Hawaii. Oh, and he had lived with diabetes since childhood, injecting himself with insulin three times a day. "We would be on lift lines, and he would be checking his blood, and if he needed a shot, he would give it to himself right there," said Nina Collins, his sister-in-law.

Mr. Collins, 38, a manager with eSpeed who lived in Montclair, N.J., was even a little cavalier about his disease when he was younger, going out with the guys for beers, eating junk food. But all that changed 11 years ago, when he met his wife, Lissa, in Lake Placid, N.Y.

"He wanted to be healthy for her," said Rich Collins, his older brother. "These two were soulmates."

Diabetes or not, Lissa and Michael Collins meant to grow old together. "He would say, 'Maybe I'll be around when they cure this thing,'" she said. "We had to just keep faith." Now, she is grateful for the time they had. "I was the luckiest girl, that I could spend 11 years with him. Everyone says that I was the best thing for him, but he was the best thing for me. He was more my life support than I was his."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times