Sunday, October 3, 2010

37

Twenty-two years ago, I met a girl. She had this sparkling personality - the kind that takes command of an entire room. Like myself, she was blessed with the gift of a keen sense of humor. Believe me when I tell you she has not a single enemy on the entire planet. She later became my sister-in-law.

Two nights ago, my thirty-seven year old sister-in-law suffered a debilitating stroke. She has compromised right-side mobility - showing improvements in alertness after 24 hours.

I'm writing this because I know how brilliantly intuitive you all are, and how bad of a liar I am - eventually, you would sense something is going on...I thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers - you would not be my friend otherwise.

As with everything else, I am keeping a positive outlook. It's naturally difficult trying to be funny in this situation, but I think my family is looking to me for an easy laugh and a strong shoulder during this crisis. Right now, I'm rather disjointed - making a chicken parmesan, 11 strips of bacon, and a pan of brownies for dinner - I really didn't know which direction I was going tonight. At least, everything tastes good...

We love you, C. You can beat this.

3 comments:

skaty said...

:( Sorry to hear, Takashi. You (and your sister-in-law) will be in my thoughts...

Alex said...

Thank you, Skat.

She's making good progress. The right side of her face can smile, and she's handling semi-solid foods.

I'm going to set up a digital picture frame for her hospital room - it'll have a ton of family pictures on it that she can cycle through.

Anonymous said...

Takashi, I am sorry to hear about your sister-in-law. She is very lucky to have family who loves her and speaks so highly of her and that, of all of the things in the world, is what will help her through this and be strong.

When my father passed, I kind of felt like the one who had to hold everyone and everything up too. I was the strong one. I got what needed to get done, done. But it came at the expense of my sleep (yay for dad's no longer needed valiums) and my sanity. I know you want to help your family through this, but I hope you aren't resistant to leaning on them too. Talk to them about how important she is to you and how this event has affected you. You have a soul and a heart too and are entitled to feelings of being sad or overwhelmed, too.

Strokes are serious business, and I'm not trying to downplay that at all, but she is young and it sounds like she has a lot of good people around her who are there to help her and support her. I will guess that in time, she will recover pretty well from it.

Sometimes I think one of the most devastating things about stuff like this happening to our family members is coming to the realization that we are all human and not one of us is exempt from the human things that happen to us. 37 is a young age for a stroke, and no doubt, that probably scares the shit out of you.

My thoughts are with you and if you need to talk, I am always there for you.

Blessed Be,

Megz