It doesn't matter the time, the day or how old a parent or a child is the child will always be yours and parents, who believe their off spring hangs the moon, will never possess an off button to use to avoid the pain you suffer when your child hurts. Again, I say and I believe that you are only as happy as your most unhappiest child. I've often wished I could be the kind of parent who could look the other way, bury my head in the sand and not keep the heart strings tied so tightly when it comes to our sons. But I can't. Neither can Jack. Gabe is 36 years old; Jason is 34 years old. They will always be my babies regardless of their age or my age. So, it was with a very saddened heart when we learned of Gabe's work injury. Our first year of retirement was splattered with heartache when Jason needed surgery to reattach his retina and we weren't there with him. I felt as if we should have been but God provided Jason with a blessing; his brother, Gabe. Gabe took him to Fort Wayne for surgery, for follow up appointments and made sure Jason had everything he needed. In a word, Gabe became Jason's caregiver by necessity and love. This year the tables were turned. The following pictures are those of Gabe's hands. His right hand (and he is right handed) are pictures of his hand after a work related injury. I don't understand the technical terms of the machine that injured him but I do know he was in tremendous pain. God has His angels everywhere and my angel the day of Gabe's accident was my friend Linda, who works in ER at KCH. According to Gabe, Linda did everything she could to comfort him and to attend to his needs. She'll never know how much I appreciated her tenderness that day. But the new HIPAA laws can be a two way sword. Under the law she cannot disclose anything about Gabe's accident to me. Actually, she was not even allowed to tell me he was injured. When later I talked to her about it (after Gabe finally admitted to us that he had been injured) she was so relieved.
We spoke to Gabe this week. He tells us the pain is more manageable now and that he is on light duty at work but there is still some swelling. Chances are he'll have some physical therapy ahead of him.
I do believe, though, that both our sons know that if they ever really needed us we'd get to them as quickly as possible. I miss them like crazy.
