From My Heart

In my previous post , I told the story of my hip injury that interrupted our lives for approximately 2 years. I mentioned that there was more to the tale, so here is the rest of the story. In August of 1998, I married for the second time. My new husband and I knew that my two children would be living with us, but never suspected that any of his children might want to move away from their mother in another state. We had only been married a month when the first of his sons chose to make the move and within a few months his other son was also living with us. We were newly weds with four children between the ages of 14 and 18 living under what had become a very small roof. Our little home was so small that my husband and I had to give up the master bedroom to the three boys and we moved into one of the spare bedrooms. It was a trying time and there was no room to spare and no one ever had any privacy.   Of course, in the midst of this was when I suffered the hip injury I t...

Nineteen Ninety Nine was the year my life changed forever. Who knew that something that happens so fast could have such far reaching effects. But it can. Life can change in an instant. It wasn't the most catastrophic thing that could happen, but it was a major change, nonetheless. I was working as a facility nurse at a small assisted living facility. I had been to lunch and upon my return noticed one of the residents crossing the busy four lane road in front of the building alone. I knew her to have dementia and knew she was not safe - so I ran after her. What happened next has some comedic irony to it. I got in the middle of the road. I know it was the middle because I remember looking down and seeing the double yellow line painted on the asphalt. I got in the middle of the road and tripped. Anti climactic? Well... when I tripped my leg twisted and I could hear the characteristic "thunk" as my hip was wrenched out of the socket. I fell to the pavement and thought, ...

You sit in an office...staring at a computer...you feel like you are living "Groundhog Day" over and over and over... OR you are mindlessly watching the television night after night...barely comprehending what is passing before your eyes and into your ears... The monotony can be mind numbing and depressing. Then, God gives you a window. It seems like such a little thing - this window - but it opens up a whole new world. A world where the sun breaks through the trees and warms your face. A world where cardinals flit through the tree branches, woodpeckers search every little crevice of the big oak tree for food, and the odd egret or crane may come strolling by. Butterflies are endless. There are other visitors. The little stray tabby that always seems to have a belly full of kittens. The raccoons that have learned we feed the cats...  Some days there are no visitors because the rain is relentless. Pounding the glass. Thunder and lightening right on the other side ....