David and Ginny Ferré were married in 1958, and enjoyed 60 years of marriage, three sons, six grandchildren and the second great grandchild is on the way, while also experiencing a collective 175 years learning, balancing, and living with Type I Diabetes.

In 1963, at the age of 28, David was diagnosed with Juvenile Onset Diabetes, (what Type I used to be called).  David and Ginny’s son Paul was two, Peter was a few weeks away from being born and they knew nothing about Diabetes, knew no one with Diabetes and Endocrinologists were few and far between.

Eleven years later Paul was diagnosed with Juvenile Onset Diabetes at age 13, (Paul’s youngest daughter, Brittany, was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes in 1998 at the age of 6), and Peter was diagnosed four years later at the age of 15. Andrew was born in 1970 and thankfully did not join the family’s Diabetes Club.

Virginia became the family diabetes manager, expert and educator at a time when there was very little available to help individuals, parents and families understand and manage Type I Diabetes.   At that time you would refill syringe barrels before each use, needles were 2-3 inches long, reusable and you would boil them between uses, “testing” consisted of peeing on a urine strip that would show if the glucose content of the urine was high, insulin came from pigs and matching the insulin you took to the carbs you were eating was in its infancy, (Peter remembers a measuring cup and small scale next to his dad’s dinner plate each evening). 

David lived a long and active life passing away in 2020 at the age of 84. Paul, Peter and Brittany are all enjoying healthy, active and balanced lives, despite the challenge that Type I Diabetes presents.

In reflection, Ginny raised a wonderful family while being the family’s diabetic researcher,  carb calculator and low blood sugar manager for a collective 175 years.