A Christmas Miracle & Truth Number 3

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...in a small mid-western town, there was a handsome, popular & athletic boy.

He was Senior Class President,

Captain of the Football Team & a State Champion in track & field.

At the same school there was a beautiful, bright young girl filled with promise for the future.

She was a Homecoming Princess, a Nationally Ranked diver & a reserve on the US Olympic Diving Team. This boy & this girl became high school sweethearts, fell in love & got married.

The sweetheart's were expecting a baby when this proud, 18 year old, All-American boy & his best friend, enlisted in the Marines & went off to fight in the Korean War. The two small town boys sailed across the ocean blue, to places they could have never imagined.

Back home, the girl became a Mommy. With her husband away at war, she & her brand new baby moved from their small hometown & everything they had ever known, to a beach city in southern California & it was there that she awaited her husband's return. Johnny was one before his Daddy ever got to hold him. Soon, there was a new addition to the family, a little baby girl named Susie.

Johnny & Susie had a happy childhood in their little house near the seashore.

Growing up with their faces in the sun, they searched for shells in the sand, swam in the bay, checked out books from the seaside library & always smelled of 'Sea & Ski.'

On Christmas morning, they sat together playing with their new toys, dressed in their new Christmas pajamas & slippers. Susie doesn't have a childhood memory that Johnny is not in.

Fast, fast forward....

Slowly & over time, their beautiful Mommy got sick. She had a devastating disease for which there was no cure. A genetic disease. Huntington's Disease. Susie was 10 when her Mommy got diagnosed & 15 when her Mommy died. Susie spent the next 40 years of her life being terrified about everything & anything to do with the monster that lurked under her bed. A flip of a coin would determine Johnny & Susie's fate, a 50/50 chance were the odds they were given. Tragically, Johnny lost the coin toss.

Susie watched Johnny get worse & worse. Susie was scared of Johnny & of what Johnny's illness represented. A possible mirror image of herself, reliving the pain of her Mommy's disease, guilt, fear & some more fear. At some point, Johnny got lost in the system...disability, social security, medical, medicare, halfway houses, care facilities, nursing homes, convalescent hospitals & Susie didn't try & find him because her FEAR was too great.

Then , Susie did a blog about 30 Truths & she came to number 3.

Unknowingly, number 3 changed her life... forever.

Number3: Something you have to forgive yourself for.

Surviving & Johnny.

 

 

Fast forward...

Thursday I found my brother, Johnny.

Thursday, I drove alone to a nursing home in LA.

Thursday, I didn't know if I could get out of the car...but I did.

Thursday, I walked through the doors & smelled urine & got scared & thought I can't do it...but I did.

Thursday, I walked up to a nurses aide & asked where Johnny was. She led me to a room & I saw a man in a bed on the far side of the room & thought, it's just too hard, don't go in...but I did.

Thursday, I walked into his room. Crying, I walked over to his bed & for the 1st time in so many lost years, I kissed the face of my brother. I stayed for 5 hours & went back the next day.

 

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My journey of Love & Peace is just beginning & my life will never be the same.

I have a brother who is 56, his name is Johnny & he has Huntington's Disease.

I am my brother's keeper...

Friday night, before I left the hospital, I asked the nurses if they might change Johnny into the new Christmas pajamas I had brought for him. I left the room & went over to the nurses station, leaning against the counter as I waited. A woman in a wheelchair, who I had never seen before, came over to me & said, "You're so beautiful! You have the glow of angels surrounding you." I thanked her as she continued talking to me about the Lord's blessings.

Was I in the presence of angels?

I believe I was.

Is this a Christmas Miracle?

Oh yes sweet hearts, most assuredly, this is an amazing Christmas Miracle...

for both of us!!

XOXO

vintagesusie