What 'The Frey Life' Helped Me Believe as a Person With a Disability
Ah, the Internet. It’s a wonderful place filled with cat videos, memes, and many other entertaining things. It’s also a place filled with support for those with chronic illnesses or disabilities. I am active with Facebook groups and blogs, but my favorite place to turn for support is YouTube.
The number of disabled or chronically ill vloggers (video bloggers) is amazing! I watch quite a few of them sporadically, but there’s only one channel whose videos I watch every day. They call themselves “The Frey Life.”
“The Frey Life” is a daily vlogging couple consisting of Peter and Mary Frey, and Mary’s service dog Oliver). Mary has cystic fibrosis, a genetic lung disease, and together they document the challenges and triumphs of living with it.
I’ve been watching “The Frey Life” since December. I don’t personally have CF, and I don’t even remember how I found their channel, but I’m glad I did. They had been vlogging for over a year when I found them. I binge-watched all the videos to catch up and have been watching daily ever since.
There’s just so much I love about “The Frey Life” and I wanted to help their story reach more people. There was only one problem; I couldn’t figure out exactly how to articulate my feelings. But after thinking about it for a long time, I realized what has made me want to keep watching them all this time. It’s the absolutely unconditional love they share for each other.
This love manifests in little ways every day. It’s in Peter’s kindness helping Mary complete tasks when her body can’t, and in Mary not letting CF stop her from supporting her husband while he preaches. It’s in encouraging words and celebrating accomplishments, no matter how small. It’s in laughter, funny
songs, and sometimes stressed-out tears. I’m sure they disagree sometimes, but the viewers never see it.
They were the first couple that truly made me believe that, when the time is right, there will be someone who can accept and love me, disability and all. I won’t be seen as a burden, but as someone who has valuable things to contribute to a relationship.
“The Frey Life” has become a little Internet family, and I’m excited to continue going through life with them.
Watch “The Frey Life” on YouTube.
Shaylee Rosnes is 18 years old and just graduated high school. She lives in Saskatchewan. She loves to read, sing, watch movies and especially write. She also happens to have cerebral palsy, but it hasn’t slowed her down yet, and she doesn’t plan on letting it.
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