Midlander honored for faith, strength

William Shoemaker
Midland Daily News
Midland, MI
05/21/2005

Natalie Lodico was diagnosed with Lyme disease a year and three months too late.

The disease can typically be treated easily if it's detected within three months. But in the two years between when she contracted it and was diagnosed, the virus permeated her blood stream and "screwed" into her deep muscle tissue, beyond any simple remedy.

By the time she and her family knew what was wrong, she was having blinding migraines daily and sleeping 16 hours a day.
"All right, God," she said to herself, "I'm barely living now, but if I'm barely living then I'm doing it through you."

That was eight years ago. Since that time, Lodico has risen out of the five-year debilitating illness, until last summer when she could finally say she was healthy again.

Now, Covenant College, the Christian school she attends in Lookout Mountain, Ga., has awarded the 22-year-old Midland native for her outstanding Christian character and achievement.

The "Spirit of Friendship Award" goes annually to the Covenant student who demonstrates the highest level of Christian caring and service to the community.

"While she's one of the most morally upright students I'm aware of, she makes friends with students who have difficulty making it," said Beckah Tuggy, resident director at the school. "I've seen firsthand how she's taken people under her wing."

Lodico's two-year Covenant roommate, Emily Miller, said that when she ran into tough times, Lodico was there to help her pull through. Lodico stayed with her, listened to her and even brought her to the hospital when she needed it.

"I was having a lot of problems with depression, and went into hospital twice because of it," she said. "I tried backing away from everyone as much as possible, and she kept coming after me."

Lodico, whose parents run a counseling center in Midland and whose father preached in Christ Presbyterian Church in Midland until she was 14, spent her free time before she left for college traveling on mission trips with the youth group at Midland Reformed Church. She went to Honduras, where she helped build a hospital, and to inner-city St. Louis, where she taught Bible school and helped renovate a school even while she struggled through the lingering symptoms of the disease.

"I think Natalie's illness gave her a special sense of knowing exactly what people need when they're isolated and having problems," said her mother, Sandra.

It also encouraged the growth of her interest in writing and art. Lodico said that when she was confined to bed for most of the day, in the worst of her illness, she kept a journal of her experiences and the internal conversations she had with God.

"It was one of the most beautiful times in my life," she said. "Sharing my thoughts with God, something solidified within me."

When she was healthy enough to leave the house, she started a writers' community in the Midland area called Scrawl, which met twice a month at members' homes. Since starting at Covenant, she also became editor of the students literary annual, as well as yearbook photographer, and hopes to finish a degree in art within another year and a half.

Having planned to attend Covenant since she was 11, Lodico always thought she wanted to do missionary work after school. But she's found that creativity and connecting with people now take precedence in her life.

"If I can show someone a photograph, and convey something -- some emotion -- they can't describe, that's enough for me," she said.