Leland's journey begins
Sunday, April 29, 2007
my nephew
So Leland asked if he was in my blog....and he should be....his life and its changes have been life changing for me and my family.
I was sitting at my computer, just like tonight, and the phone call came from Darcie...mom, it's leland...and right now is just like right then, I can feel it just like then...the horror, the gut twisting pain of not knowing what I was going to hear next....and altho he was alive, it was not good. Narrow county roads in the middle of south Texas cotton fields....kids fresh from a win at a basketball game....omygod he had just dropped several off....so just Rene' and Leland...flying home in that old car...and that stop sign. What stop sign? it was there, and he must have ran it....and that truck was going 70mph when it hit that old car, with Rene' riding shotgun. And Rene' was gone. And Leland is always 16. Just like that night. Just like that. Even tho it was over a decade ago....
He was a beautiful baby...the bouncing blonde boy...smiling and happy...and please read yertle the turtle one more time... he was 3 and he'd hear me come in from work late....and sneak out of the bedroom to me on the couch..DrSuess in hand, just one more time. He'd watch me brush my hair..you're so pretty, aunt kay...you had to hide the ribs or he ate them all...he was my baby nephew and my mother's blonde baby grandson, my little brother's only son... and we all adored him, and when that marriage broke up and we couldn't hold him and love him at will, it tore our family apart. But his sister Holly and my daughter Darcie, as soon as they had driver's licenses, fixed that...they showed up on his mother's doorstep...and Leland was back in our lives...now tall and handsome and sweet and still blonde...we had a couple of years before that wreck in that cotton field.
an ICU waiting room becomes its own community in just a few hours...and when it turns into weeks....a society in itself...alot of sharing, from snacks to prayers, each individual focused on someone on the other side of the doors...and the ones to understand how deep that pain and fear and hope can run when a doctor comes thru them, chart in hand, looking for the next of kin....of one of us. One of us sitting in that room. And we hear the words " that's a healthy young athlete laying in that bed, we just don't know..." Only one cut on Leland, across his brow, some bruises.....and a severe closed head injury. A probe deep in his upper forehead...measuring the pressure....and there he lay. When I arrived, my niece Holly had not walked into that room...so we went together....God's arms are around him, Holly, He'll decide for us...
more later...the kids, those kids from the high school....and the love they showered on Leland and us...
my nephew
So Leland asked if he was in my blog....and he should be....his life and its changes have been life changing for me and my family.
I was sitting at my computer, just like tonight, and the phone call came from Darcie...mom, it's leland...and right now is just like right then, I can feel it just like then...the horror, the gut twisting pain of not knowing what I was going to hear next....and altho he was alive, it was not good. Narrow county roads in the middle of south Texas cotton fields....kids fresh from a win at a basketball game....omygod he had just dropped several off....so just Rene' and Leland...flying home in that old car...and that stop sign. What stop sign? it was there, and he must have ran it....and that truck was going 70mph when it hit that old car, with Rene' riding shotgun. And Rene' was gone. And Leland is always 16. Just like that night. Just like that. Even tho it was over a decade ago....
He was a beautiful baby...the bouncing blonde boy...smiling and happy...and please read yertle the turtle one more time... he was 3 and he'd hear me come in from work late....and sneak out of the bedroom to me on the couch..DrSuess in hand, just one more time. He'd watch me brush my hair..you're so pretty, aunt kay...you had to hide the ribs or he ate them all...he was my baby nephew and my mother's blonde baby grandson, my little brother's only son... and we all adored him, and when that marriage broke up and we couldn't hold him and love him at will, it tore our family apart. But his sister Holly and my daughter Darcie, as soon as they had driver's licenses, fixed that...they showed up on his mother's doorstep...and Leland was back in our lives...now tall and handsome and sweet and still blonde...we had a couple of years before that wreck in that cotton field.
an ICU waiting room becomes its own community in just a few hours...and when it turns into weeks....a society in itself...alot of sharing, from snacks to prayers, each individual focused on someone on the other side of the doors...and the ones to understand how deep that pain and fear and hope can run when a doctor comes thru them, chart in hand, looking for the next of kin....of one of us. One of us sitting in that room. And we hear the words " that's a healthy young athlete laying in that bed, we just don't know..." Only one cut on Leland, across his brow, some bruises.....and a severe closed head injury. A probe deep in his upper forehead...measuring the pressure....and there he lay. When I arrived, my niece Holly had not walked into that room...so we went together....God's arms are around him, Holly, He'll decide for us...
more later...the kids, those kids from the high school....and the love they showered on Leland and us...
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