Imagine A Terrible Sorrow

Imagine a terrible sorrow, a death in a family perhaps. Imagine the death is the mother of a family and she was the glue that held the family together. She helped her family with love and humor and with patient guidance. She worked hard and she taught her children to work hard, show up, pay your bills, be responsible, and to try your best. She made the best of what she had. When tragedy struck her family, she made the best of it. A drunk driver struck her teenage son as he walked home from middle school and left him lying there on the road with a brain injury. The son was in a coma for six months. He went to rehab. She brought him home and she cared for him. She worked his muscles to avoid contractions. She encouraged him to speak when he couldn't form the words. She bought him clothes and got him dressed. She made sure his wheelchair was clean and repaired. His body matured through adolescence into adulthood but his mind remained a teenager. The car accident and brain injury left him without short term memory. He could tell you the make and model of his dirt bike when he was a teenager but he could not tell you the year, his age, or who was the current president. He can't remember what you told him three minutes ago. Imagine she is gone and other family members take over the care of her son. Although the son went to the funeral and was told his mother died, he does not, he cannot remember. He asks where she is. Everytime he is told his mother is gone, he's hearing it for the first time. Everytime he asks, his family has to break the news to him again. Yet the family goes on. They show up, they work hard, they pay the bills, they do their best and they are responsible. The family even smiles and makes jokes. She taught them to be resilient.