An excerpt from my book, One Arm One Leg 100 Words, Overcoming Unbelievable Hardships”
I should clarify at this point that her 100 words aren’t really 100 words. Even though she can in fact say 100 words when prompted, it was very difficult (if not impossible) to spontaneously say most of them. For example, the word that she can most often easily speak is the word no. However, if I asked her to say the word no, (because it was not spontaneous) she would struggle saying it. By the same token, words that she could say only when prompted, she would have great difficulty speaking them spontaneously.
The first year after the move, Charlene did not feel very festive and she didn’t want to decorate the house at all. Before her stroke, she loved Christmas and usually started decorating everything in the house right after Thanksgiving, even sometimes right after Halloween! Her indifference to the holiday was so out of character that I tried to make an attempt to put some decorations up, but it just wasn’t the same. She had lost her Christmas spirit. In fact, she had lost her Charlene spirit. She seemed depressed or angry most of the time, reverting back to the grieving process.
By the second year of the move, she seemed to be coming back to life again, and she started acting like the old Charlene that we knew and loved. She seemed more at peace, more accepting of things, more patient, more understanding, more everything. Then all of a sudden, she seemed to take an interest in this new house in which we were living.
Like I mentioned before, she did not want to move, but when she realized that we were in fact moving, she at least wanted to pick out the house we were going to buy. I gladly agreed, so she selected this one-story house with a beautifully landscaped backyard and sloped pool that seemed like it was especially made for a disabled person. The pool has a beautiful waterfall and spa with palm trees everywhere.
However, she thought the house was too small (half the size of our last house), but she loved the yard. So, when I heard that she wanted to paint the walls different colors (everything was white), I was excited! She went into interior decorating mode, and started comparing swatches of colors on the walls, and negotiated a great price from the son of our next-door neighbor, who was 17 and very meticulous and detail oriented in anything he did. He did a great job, and our house was starting to look like a home.
The next thing she attacked was the window dressings. I helped her install the hand-made valances that she sewed. She also sewed all of the drapes and curtains herself. Remember, one hand and one leg on a sewing machine. It was like watching a one-armed wallpaper hanger. Oh, I helped, of course, but I couldn’t have done any of it without her. I am the spit and she is the polish We make a pretty good team. The house was beginning to feel warm and cozy. She was, and still is, a great decorator.
When the next Thanksgiving rolled around, she wanted everyone in the family to come over. She was going to prepare a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. She also made me pull out all of the Christmas decorations. She then proceeded to decorate the entire house for Christmas. She turned our home into a magical winter wonderland. It was beautiful. She is so talented and gifted. It looked like our home belonged in a Martha Stewart Christmas magazine issue.
The Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners were a success. Everyone was so happy that she was returning to her old self again. She was doing so much more than she had been three years earlier. Something had changed inside. She had a sparkle in her eyes, and when she was asked what happened, she would point up to the sky, and say, “God!” Then she would touch her heart with her hand.
She then took out her church directory, and started selecting names. She wanted to host a dinner party for certain people whom she considered close to her, and who showed their love to her in many personal ways. She hosted this dinner party just as in the old days before her stroke.
She proved to herself that she still had it. Nothing could stop her now. All her guests just raved about the very special evening to their friends. She acquired quite a reputation of being an incredible gourmet cook and the perfect hostess. Of course, I was once again famous for just being lucky enough to be Charlene’s husband. It is a title that I have enjoyed for years.
I would come home many times from work, and find that she had organized all the closets and kitchen cabinets, done the laundry, cleaned the house, painted the scratches in the walls that her wheel chair had run into, prepared a delicious dinner and dessert, and looked fabulous. I asked her where she was hiding all of the elves and gnomes who helped her all day long. But alas, she did it all by herself with just the help of God giving her the determination, and allowing His glory to be shown through her marvelous attitude and demeanor.
This is just a another chapter of my book “One Arm One Leg 100 Words, Overcoming Unbelievable Hardships”. You can buy the book by clicking this link. And surely, you will not stop reading it from the beginning till the end of this book.