Community Corner
North Farmington Alum Learns to Live with Epilepsy
Natalie Lichtman's former West Bloomfield employer has joined the #AJO pay it forward movement for Epilepsy Awareness Month.
Natalie Lichtman was a 17-year-old North Farmington High School student when she learned she had epilepsy, which causes seizures.
"I was getting ready for school, and my dad happened to walk past my room and saw me on the floor," she said. "I was really lucky, I was 10 minutes away from getting into my car and driving to school."
As a young person struggling to cope with the condition, she was drawn to the story of Alyssa O'Neill, a Pennsylvania teenager who died of a seizure just a year after being diagnosed. Natalie shared with her parents, Suzanne and Gary, the "pay it forward" initiative launched in Alyssa's memory.
According to a story on Huffington Post, the viral #AJO movement started when O'Neill's parents "purchased 40 lattes for strangers in an Erie, PA Starbucks and just asked that the baristas scribble her initials #AJO on the cups." In exchange, the recipient was asked to do something nice for someone else, and pass the hashtag along.
The Lichtmans passed the story on to the owners of Leaf & Berry Tea and Frozen Yogurt Lounge in West Bloomfield's Orchard Mall, where Natalie worked over the summer. They surprised Natalie with the announcement that Leaf & Berry would host its own #AJO effort in November, which is Epilepsy Awareness Month.
Paying it forward, #AJO style
On one day each week, the first 10 orders of a 12-ounce or 16-ounce prepared loose leaf tea or chai latte will become part of the shop's Pay It Forward Movement. The days will be chosen at random, according to a post on Leaf & Berry's Facebook page.
The effort means a lot of Natalie, now a student at John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH, because it will raise awareness about epilepsy, which affects about 1 percent of the population.
"It's really excellent because I think epilepsy's overlooked a lot," she said, even though it's fairly common. "If you talk to anyone, someone knows someone who has seizures."
Although epilepsy involves the brain, Natalie said, it hasn't affected her school work, even though she sometimes has to go at a slower pace. Each person who has epilepsy experiences it in a different way; for Natalie, it involves grand mal seizures.
"When I've had seizures in front of friends, my confidence has been crushed a bit," she said. "But I'm lucky because I have great friends who have really been there for me."
Learn more about Leaf & Berry's #AJO Pay It Forward efforts on the business Facebook page. Learn more about epilepsy at epilepsymichigan.org.
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