Dear Friends
& Family:
As you may know,
2015 was an exceptionally tumultuous year which left us extraordinarily
grateful for our friends, family and neighbors.
The year got off
to a great start including new opportunities to expand our grant writing
consulting business into the northern California area. Back at home, John led
the effort to replace the leaky copper pipes at our Del Prado HOA with new PEX
piping. On the surface, everything seemed as bright and cheery as new daffodils
on a spring day.
By the end of
March, however, Trish started to suffer from an inexplicable nausea and
unrelenting dizziness. By the beginning of June, she fell hard in the bathtub,
hit her head and temporarily lost her ability to walk or talk. John called
9-11. She ended up at Mission Hospital where a CT scan showed three subdural
hematomas inside her head. Our small group from Coast Hills Church and other
friends gathered around to pray and comfort us as Trish went in to surgery.
While the brain surgery undoubtedly saved Trish’s life, she still had a bad
case of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
For a number of
months, she needed a walker to get around the house. Thanks to our premium
health insurance, she got weekly visits from a social worker, a visiting nurse,
a physical therapist and even an occupational therapist who taught Trish safer
ways to get in and out of a bathtub. In addition to these professional
visitors, we also got assistance from May Drew, John’s mom, who came down to
Laguna Niguel to help with the cooking and other chores. Later, Michelle Drew
and her daughter Joy stopped by and helped out too. Michelle gave Trish a new,
stylish haircut that made the shaved parts of her head look like a compelling
attractive fashion statement.
Trish did not
heal up completely until late September after completing an intensive regime of
physical therapy and a three day a week outpatient program.
To get a break
from his nursing duties, John kept up his exercise program and oil painting
classes at the nearby Sea County Community Center. He broke new ground by
learning to paint his first portraits based on live models. Politically, John
was in the news briefly when he was interviewed by The Campus Fix regarding
freedom of speech on college campuses and his own experience as a token
conservative on the elite Williams College campus. He later contributed an
opinion piece on the same topic to Campus Reform.
All in all, we
are now pleasantly at peace, physically stabilized and looking forward to a
fresh crop of daffodils in the year ahead.
Love, John &
Trish
No comments:
Post a Comment