Two Years

Two Years

Friday we hit the 2 year anniversary of Mike’s accident. Most of the medical profession says that the greatest healing and changes in the person with brain injury occurs in the first 2 years. Some say that by the 2 year mark, any improvements that were going to happen have happened and so this is it. Other families who have loved ones with brain injury say “don’t believe it!” They say that improvements continue year after year, just extremely slow, the brain is very complex, but does continue to regenerate and heal. So we continue to pray, believe, and hope for more recovery.

 Mike did a great job in the Maundy Thursday play along with 12 other men from church. It was the first time I had ever seen the dramatization of Leonardo DaVinci’s painting, The Lord’s Supper. The cast posed at the table matching DaVinci’s painting. Each disciple told a little bit about themselves, how they came to know Jesus and wondered if they could be the one to betray him. It was well done and interesting to hear more about each disciple. Mike portrayed Thomas who is sitting to the right and behind the Jesus character who is seated at the middle of the table. Thomas is holding up his hand as if pointing to the sky. Only his head and hand are visible. (Mike kept his glasses on J)

 

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Grace has a tradition of placing flowers on a cross. The cross is at the front of the church with palm branches attached to the back. At the end of the service, the congregation has the opportunity of placing flowers through the wire and transforming the bare, crooked, wooden cross to a cross blooming with life and beauty. What a beautiful visual reminder of how Christ offers to take away our sinful, crooked lives through his death on the cross and then give us a new and beautiful life through His resurrection. After the service, the cross was carried to the edge of the church property by the highway.

Last week, we had a very rough beginning of the week and then probably the best 3 days in a row ever. Wednesday, a man from Care Advantage came out to help with Mike and he had the opportunity to see almost all of the many faces of Mike. He came back on Thursday! Yay!  His name is Tony and he and Mike had a great day on Thursday. Unfortunately, Tony is not able to drive Mike anywhere yet, (I’m going to speak with the powers-that-be and see if we can remedy this situation.) so we all went to Johnny’s and then came home and Mike wanted to show Tony around the farm so they headed off for a walk.

I went to Richmond to submit the conservator and guardianship reports. It was a gorgeous spring day and I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone and away. I parked in a parking deck and loved the freedom to go at my own pace. I probably walked about 25-30 city blocks making all the stops I needed to make plus enjoying the day and seeing Spring in bloom. Saw the Square (Governor’s Square?) where I used to eat lunch when I worked in Richmond so detoured around to look at that and then decided to see if Stuffy’s was still around. Stuffy’s is a sub shop where we would stop and get lunch on our way home from Secretarial classes. Sure enough, it is still there and the inside looks almost the same!  I ordered my old favorite of turkey on pita with lettuce, tomato, mayo, oil & vinegar and their herb mix. What a nostalgic treat for my taste buds! I sat in the car, enjoyed my trip down memory lane, ate my lunch and then back home. I felt the tension and stress melting away.

Saturday Mike and I joined a few folks in Blackstone to help pick up litter along the streets.  I forgot to take a photo while we were working so here we are in our orange vests after we had picked up 2 1/2 big bags of trash. Backs hurting, but very satisfying work.