“You can do anything!”

These were the words that my new endocrinologist, Dr. Norman Spencer Welch, said to me at Piedmont Hospital in 1993. Attaching my first Medtronic insulin pump to my side, he was upbeat, reassuring - everything I really needed at that moment. What, I thought, could I really accomplish with this new (then nondetachable) appendage constantly attached to me?
“You can do anything, and if you let it do its work, you will have a long life with type-1 diabetes,” he assured.
I was skeptical. Elected to the Georgia State legislature at age 28, I had fallen ill three years later, learning that I would need to use insulin for the rest of my life.
Over the years, I have learned that the realization of ones own mortality is also an inspiration to do things while we can, not putting them off.
I went on to finish my time at the Georgia legislature, having passed a number of significant measures, and I ran For Congress.
Coming up short in that effort, with no fault to the pump or diabetes, I found myself back at my moribund law practice. Soon I was representing the scariest man in town, a failed TV repairman charged with keeping his wife in their basement for decades before killing her.
I shared with Dr. Welch what I was up to when I saw him every three months, and always found the same encouragement to never let diabetes or the treatment hold me back.
Representing Alvin Ridley was the biggest challenge of my life. With no one in the community realizing, 25 years ago, that he was simply an autistic man that few understood. he and I found a way to work together and I successfully defended an innocent man.
Now, over 30 years since Dr. Welch‘s first encouragement, my book, “Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom” (Citadel, Hardcover, February 2024), is being released.
Thank you, Dr. Welch, for over three decades of encouragement.
McCracken Poston Jr.