To the Next Adventure - RIP ??

This past week I lost my grandmother - Violetta. She was a lot of things - an architect, an immigrant, a loving wife and mother … but above all else she was a fighter. She fought a decades-long battle with illness with tenacity and grace, and movement was at the center of that battle. With every surgery, with every treatment, with every fall it became harder for her to walk. But walking also gave her a sense of agency and independence. Early in her journey she set a goal for herself to walk two miles per day because “it was good for her”, and she stuck to that goal no matter what - no matter the weather, no matter how she felt that day, no matter what was going on in the world. Some days she would circle her block hundreds of times, hesitating to stray far from home.??Some days she would fly across the world with her oxygen machine, walker, wheelchair, and a trunk of supplies in tow - because any amount of walking she could do to see the architecture and the different ways of life inspired her more than the pain exhausted her.?I distinctly remember?slowly?making our way up the Arc De Triomphe in Paris together step by step, because she was determined to see the bird’s eye view of the city. I didn't understand it at the time, but I see now the silent rebellion that this represented for her.?

She was an inspiration to me. Watching her struggle and her determination, and knowing that she is far from being alone in this fight, is what inspires me every day in the work we do at Skip - to make movement not just possible but joyful?through powered wearables. I wish?our products had been available in time to help her move on her own terms - to see more views and share more strides with the people she loved. But I am inspired and humbled by the possibility of helping others do so - to build a world where nobody feels left behind.