“Are you sitting down? Sit down. Linda’s had a brain aneurism rupture. She probably won’t live through the night, but if she does, she will be in surgery tomorrow morning.” This is the short call we got from my mother’s other sister right before we rushed out the door to make the trip to Rockford, IL. It was the longest drive of my life, the whole time just watching the small clear blue tears stream down my mother’s face. No one could believe what was happening. My aunt had always lived a healthy life. To have an aneurism rupture leaving her significantly, physically, and mentally impaired at forty-five was not what anyone was expecting.
My Aunt Linda is the most amazing woman I know. She went from having it all to having almost nothing. When thrown into the worst imaginable situation, she did not give up. She kept a positive attitude and was able to regain a bit of the control over her life that she had lost. She used to get up every day, make some hot and steamy coffee and breakfast for herself, husband, and son and head off to work. Now she can’t even move; let alone get herself out of bed, change her clothes, or even eat food.
Her life is completely different. Now about the only things she can do are play games and watch movies. When it comes to games, she can only play two; dominos being her favorite. As you can imagine, I’ve now spent countless hours playing the one game I never liked myself, all just to that grin appear on her face and see how happy she gets every time she wins. That grin of hers inspires me every day when I feel like nothing’s going the way I want it to. I just think how grateful I am to be able to walk and enjoy the beautiful scenery that surrounds me or communicate with the people that mean everything to me.
Everyday we make sure that she gets out on a walk. Now, to be taken on hour long walks up and down different streets through the town is the highlight of her day. She loves getting out in the sunshine and waving to all people in sight. Although all most people do is stare at her because she is different, she doesn’t let it get to her. It’s taken me a lot to get used to people being rude and just staring. She’s helped me grow as a person and not care what people think.
She enjoys life; every bit of it. Someday I want to be half as happy as she is now, even with all her disabilities.