| Al |
You think that someone could love you enough to take upon themselves the responsibility of physical challenges. I don't know what greater attribute than love that could be.
And this attribute belongs to Heidi Lastrocca, wife to Al and mother to his children. Al became a quadriplegic as a result of a football accident at age 17.
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| Linda |
You married Al when he was in a wheelchair |
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| Heidi |
Yes |
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| Linda |
What did you have to accept before you made the big step to get married? |
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| Heidi |
I had to accept that we could not go to restaurants that only had stairs |
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| Heidi |
The housework, the chores alot of the childcare is on me,10:51 I did not think that far in advance just to marry him but I knew that they would be obstacles that would have to be overcome. |
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| Al |
What people seem to forget that in order for me to have my pants on, or a shirt on you know I have a support system; someone helps me but my wife. |
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| Heidi |
To know him is to love him, I mean anyone who meets him falls in love with him.9:30 |
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| Heidi |
I was an office manager for a small insurance agency and he was going to do some telemarketing for the agency. We would go out have a cheese steak together, go to a movie and it eventually developed into a relationship and a friendship and love and marriage, children. |
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| Linda |
Did you investigate having kids before you got married? |
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| Heidi |
When I went to my OBGYN he told me, I do not know if you could have children, I could not even imagine. |
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| Heidi |
I thought of having kids while I was five. It was always my plan to be a mother.
And that plan meant Heidi would have to undergo invitro fertilization in order to have Al’s children
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| Linda |
It is dangerous isn't it? |
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| Heidi |
You are very uncomfortable, swollen dangerous if you were to be hit in the stomach could ruptured. |
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| Heidi |
I had to sign a waiver with risks and everything saying that they could puncture my bladder I could die. |
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| Al |
Here's a woman signing wavers, taking medicines that could kill her I make my little donation 1:07which I'm paralyzed and I don't even feel. |
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| Heidi |
My thought was if I could not have my own children, I could adopt, I could love other children that much.
And she does love other children. Some of them at St Paul’s school where she provides services as a speech language specialist
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| Heidi |
The kids are great, there is something that I love about every single child that I see. I tell them there is something positive about everybody, and that is what I tell them, there is all different kinds of smart. |
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| Al |
My wife is a mom on the move because of her passion for life, her passion for her family passion to succeed. Her passion to find the best in be the best in everything she does. |
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| Linda |
If you could do anything over again, what would you say to that? |
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| Heidi |
I would, I would do it. Knowing what I had to go through, I would do it all over again, to have Jarrod and Emma They're just really magical. |
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| Linda |
You have three people to take care of -and you have a dog? |
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| Heidi |
(laughs) Yes, we got the dog first. It was a wedding gift. |
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| Al |
On top of that to take the additional responsibility of a child and then another child in fact we might have a third we'll talk about that later on00:08 off camera than a dog oh my god the dog:10 |
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| Heidi |
You know every day is an adventure but as long as everything does not fall on one day, as long as every day I can feel like I have done something successful.
No matter how crazy my day, when I look at all three of them sleeping and the dog. I tell them everyday how special they are, how wonderful and how I always wanted to be a mother.
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