Leadership in Action – AUNZ English – 201805

here this time next year, it’ll be a miracle. We’re doing everything we can and it’s just not working.’” Driving home from that visit, all Tim could think was, “What am I doing? I’ve got a beautiful wife, beautiful kids, beautiful grandkids, and they don’t even get to enjoy their dad or their pawpaw.” Getting the music back At that point, Tim weighed the most he’d ever weighed—330 pounds. The Welches didn’t even have a scale that could weigh him. He could barely get off the couch, let alone walk. He talked with a rasp. He recalls trying to fit into a tuxedo for his son’s wedding. He was fitted for it in March, but in April, it was almost too tight. Buttons were ready to pop. Seeing himself in the wedding pictures later made him feel disgusted. But instead of giving up, those experiences finally pushed Tim to make a firm resolution. He was going to reclaim his old, happy life. “I promise you I’m going to try,” he said to Tammie. Tammie remembers the moment Tim resolved to change. “It was a hard time,” she says. “But we were starting to realise that we needed to get back to living.” “Little by little,” Tim says, “I made progress. I kept praying and kept going. One string at a time, I was going to get back in tune.” Tammie invited him on walks, but at first Tim simply couldn’t keep

“I was out most of the time, but I remember bits and pieces,” he says. “I can remember Tammie saying, ‘Don’t leave me.’ “After that, my health just kept going down and down,” he says. “At one time I was on 17 different medications. Seventeen pills a day. I caught a terrible infection. And believe it or not, I was still trying to perform at that time. I was up on stage playing with tubes sticking out of my neck. It was crazy.” Hurting deeply both physically and emotionally, Tim turned to food. He began eating twice as much as he needed to because eating made him feel good for a while. After another few years, he had gained 150 pounds—and had hit rock bottom. “I was so far out of tune,” he says. “I couldn’t do anything. I didn’t want to play anymore. I couldn’t work anymore. Tammie even had to help my tie my shoes. She had to stop performing as well because she was trying to take care of me. “When you go from performing on stage with some of the best artists in the world to not even being able to tie your own shoes or climb a flight of stairs, you become a different person. I wasn’t the same man Tammie married. And that made me feel even more miserable.” During a doctor’s visit one January, Tim’s doctor had some bad news. “He looked at me,” Tim recalls, “and said, ‘I’m going to be honest with you. If you’re

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MAY 2018 | MELALEUCA.COM

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