Back to our Future

Well, I wasn't able to get back to Utah until Thanksgiving of that year. My husband took time off and I had quit my teaching job at the Christian school so I could take care of little James' medical issues. We packed the kids up and drove down to Uintah where my sister Glory lived.

I can see, and taste that feeling of walking into the rehab room that Mer had been relocated to, just as if it were yesterday. It makes me shiver as I type this.

Mer was propped up in bed, right leg elevated in some kind of sling. It was wrapped in the kind of netting material you might see on a burn victim. But it was horribly thin, to thin, except from the ankle down.

Mer seemed chipper. Her movements were very spasmodic and her speech hard to untangle. But thank God our Heavenly Father, my sister, MY SISTER, was a living miracle! Of course none of Mer's difficulties cut into her sense of humor. Mer, Karen and I laughed and joked about everything, especially that stern nurse 14oo hours! (click your heels and salute!)

We got to bring Mer home to Glory's for a couple very guarded hours on Thanksgiving day. Mer was in heaven, but the rest of us were out of sorts. Taking care of a critically disabled loved one was a new challenge to us all, we were shaking in our boots.

These were the first days my children had been exposed to Auntie Mer's difficulties.They were intimidated, yet curious. But this was the beginning of a great learning lesson for them, which started with compassion.

I can visualize myself standing in my sisters shower the water spraying every which way, wondering how I was going to ask my husband if Mer could come live with us. Mer and I had a few conversations earlier on about where would she end up after this long intense hospital stay. She would cry and tremble sputtering out as best her lips would allow. "I have two choices Peggy. I can't live in a nursing home, I'll die. I'm only 26!" (She had a birthday by then.) "I love mom and Dave,(our step dad) but I can't move to New Mexico to live with them, I'll go crazy!" I also knew in both those situations she would not be allowed to see her children often.

Well I finally got around to nervously asking Jim, he agreed with looks of trepidation, knowing that this would be just as good for my psyche as for Mer's.

We sat the plan in motion, but it would still be months before Mer's body would heal enough to leave the hospital.

The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his illness.
Psalm 41:3


Love you Mer