Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Monday Sept. 21st Recovery: Parental Paranoia

Monday Sept. 21st
I am continually amazed at how Jeff handles the injury. He continually comes across someone he hasn't seen in awhile and the question is always what happaned? Kind of hard to hide as he walks by with a cane (his walking reminds me of the old string puppet shows when I was growing up like the Thunderbirds, only slower). It's always interesting to watch people's reactions as he walks past them. Its one of those situations where they see him and don't say anything, but turn their heads after he passes by. The look of curiosity in their eyes. I would be paranoid by now, but Jeff takes it in stride.

Our neighbors across the street have been very supportive of Jeff. For all these years we have not had much contact with them. But when they noticed Jeff and the walker, they came over to ask what happaned. Ever since then, they make sure when they see him, they ask how he is doing and offer words of encouragement.

One benefit of his return to school is that he sometimes stays up and studies with Jared. Jared's school schedule is tough with honors classes, band and now cross country (long story).
Being the big brother never ends and we see the influence of Jeff and Jordan on Jared. Mostly good...........

I still catch myself being a paranoid parent. I used to get mad at Gayle for being over protective. But I catch myself every now and then. The other day he score kept at a basketball game. I was concerned about the chair he would be sitting on. Did it have enough back support? Did I need to bring one from home? What kind of pillow or support did he need? Did he have enough drinks? Was the rest room close enough where he could take a break during half time?. I ended up going home to get a cushion and ice chest of drinks. There is always something in the back of the mind that worries something else will occur..........or more accurately a fear deep seated in the heart.

The one benefit of Jeff's injury is that it has reunited us with many friends we have had not seen in a while. Pastor Carl Yoshimine called the other day when he found out about Jeff. Pastor Carl performed our marriage and did our pre marital counseling. That is another story....... He is by far the most caring pastor we have ever met. Everyone has a pastor Carl story. When Gayle's mom was in the hospital, he would come out from Anaheim to Gardena to visit her. On the day of her surgery we got a phone call from him wondering why we were not there yet. He beat us to the hospital on the day of her surgery and we live only minutes away. He would be sitting in the waiting room and soon strike up a conversation with a stranger and soon they would be laughing and telling him about their life.

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