rghilljr

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Stay with me guys because this may get long.....

My wife's brother has severe cerebral palsy and has been through 6 brain surgeries. He lives in a group home about an hour from us and we try to see him as much as we can. Well tonight was his prom at his school so the wife and I decided to go. We thought it would be a great idea to dress him up and take him out to eat and the whole works. We went and enjoyed a nice meal and then returned to his school to find the chapel decorated in stars and stripes for the residents at the school to celebrate.

I watched in awe as each one of the residents was brought in to the room with all of their prom attire; the girls in their dresses and the guys mostly in shirts and ties. Some of the residents were able to walk in but only with assistance from some of the staff. The other residents had to brought in their wheel chairs. Those that could get up and dance did so and even those that were confined to the chairs were able to make movements or something to let you know that they were having a great time.

My wife and I both agreed that you could sit their and cry the entire night; you could cry because of the situation, you could cry happy tears because they were having so much fun and then you could cry thankful tears because we have to healthy boys at home. But we cried because of what might have been. You see, my wife and I lost a child on 3/25/10. We call it his birth day and his death day. We found out that he was going to have many problems and IF he made it full term probably would only survive just a couple of minutes. We had some tough decisions to make and questions that we wanted answered.

I will not go any further except to say that if you have kids and they are healthy or if you have kids that have some special needs, make sure you tell them that you love them and be thankful that they are here and that you can tell them!! I am thankful for my 2 boys that I have now but I can't wait and can only imagine what it will be like when I see my other one.

Thanks for letting me get this out there.....
 
Well said rgh. I feel for you and your family buddy, thank you for sharing that here with us!
 
Wow some very inspiring words
 
"You don't really know what you got till it's gone"..

I have learned this in life as well. Appreciate the friendly reminder to be thankful for what we have in life.
 
Great read here, yes I am very thankful for my three great kids and three wonderful grand kids to boot. I've been through numerous illnesses including cancer and diabetes with my children and each and every time I faced it life seemed to stop, like it was the end of the world. It wasn't, not even close. I was struck each time by the sights and situations in the hospitals that always made our little problems look like a day at the beach.

I am extremely proud of my children and all they have went through in their short lives, but never once have I excepted them to think they were somehow different or had it bad. They can still dance without help, they can carry on a conversation that's complete and well thought out and they can each take care of their own children now which is much more important.
 
Awesome message man. I try and tell my daughter that I love her everyday. My life would not be near as good without her.
 
Sometimes you log onto THP and you talk golf. Other times you log in and just read some of the hardest things in the world to read, yet some of the most inspiring.

That was a great read. Glad you could share that with us.
 
Thanks for sharing with us, reading about experiences such as yours really helps to keep things in my own life in perspective. Again, I know it's not easy but I really do appreciate you sharing.
 
Thank you for a wonderful lesson in gratitude, and thank you for sharing your story.
 
Man this made me tear up a little bit glad you guys had a great experience. I lost a good friend of mine to brain cancer last year at 29 like cookie said stories like this really put things in perspective!
 
Thank you for sharing this with us. Some people around here know about out situation but January 12th 2010 my wife had a miscarriage. It was obviously devastating to us. In the past October we found out my wife was pregnant with twins. It was a scary but exciting time. In December, at a routine checkup we found out one of the twins just stopped developing. A week prior to that my wife also lost her job. Through it all we held out hope and hoped for the best. July 17th we finally had our healthy baby girl. It was a long journey but well worth it. I thank God every day she is healthy. My nephew that is 2 was born with a rare hereditary blood disorder and a seizure disorder. Seeing him go through that and having a new baby was a scary thing to not only worry about him but to worry if our daughter would have the same issues. So far she is okay. The blood disorder wouldnt effect her until she hit menopause (if at all) because of menstruation so that at least gave us some peace. With all that said, I know what you went through and can feel your pain. Everyone should take every opportunity to tell their loved ones that they love them and hold them close.


Tap Tap Taparoo
 
Thank you for a very inspiring post. Choked me up a little this early morning. It will be in my mind as I watch my daughter play golf today. The bogeys won't matter too much after having read your message.

Kevin
 
Amen...every single day.
 
Very well said, good post.
 
I teared up reading this. I agree with you about meeting your child. It will be an awesome reunion because everybody will be whole.

Edit: Rep Added.
 
Brother I am glad you shared this with us. Life is so tough sometimes and those of us blessed don't have a clue about the down side. It could be so much worse but yet we take things for granted. I hope all goes well!
 
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