Out of a Mountain of Despair A Stone of Hope. This quote is on the Martin Luther King, Jr memorial in Washington DC.
A Journey of Resilience
Today is Martin Luther King Day. I have a picture from his memorial in Washington, DC that says, “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
I love this quote. We all need to have hope. We all need to have more than hope as well.
The word brings up a lot of feelings for me. Hope for a cure for cancer. I don’t want to hope. I want those people who are working toward a cure to work their asses off. I also don’t want to give up hope.
A Winter That Changed Everything
In January of 2001, my dad slipped on the ice and hit his head. He wouldn’t let Mom take him to the hospital, he was a doctor and thought he didn’t need to go. He continued to work. Two and a half days later they flew him to Denver because the I-70 was unpassable.
The morning after they evacuated the subdural hematoma, he had he had a hemorrhagic stroke. I remember Mom calling me because he had given me copies of their living wills and asking me to bring it when I came. I didn’t. I wasn’t willing to give up hope.
Fighting for Life: My Mom’s Unyielding Determination
Mom wasn’t either and didn’t sit around and hope he’d be alright. She fought for him when the doctors were telling her there wasn’t much chance that he’d recover.
She had a friend who was a musician. She flew to Denver to be with mom. Dad had been in the band when he was a student at KU. They found marching band music and played it in his room. Mom found a music therapist and hired them to come in for music therapy.
In April Medicare said he’d plateaued and that he needed to be placed in a nursing home. She’d have none of that. She went to the neurologist and neurosurgeon to see what they could do. He had hydrocephalus so they placed a shunt in his brain. This got him more time in the rehab hospital.
She found an acupuncturist who had been a neurologist in China and hired him. I think he or one of his students came in twice a week.
All of this along with the traditional physical and occupational therapy.
After almost a month in the ICU, six or seven months in inpatient rehabilitation, and a year in outpatient rehabilitation. They finally came back to Oakley where he also had some rehabilitation. All after the doctors thought he wouldn’t make it.
Mom never gave up hope. She worked toward helping him come back.
Dad died in 2020 after a bought with colon cancer. At that point if you didn’t know you would have thought he was a normal aging man.
When I was working on my word for the year faith came to me. So, it’s my word for this year.
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Onward!
