STROKE Part 6 - My New Partner in Crime!

When I woke up this morning I had no idea I would meet the most interesting woman I'd ever met and I had no idea she would make my crap existence there...... wonderful! I was laying down taking a nap before my afternoon torture session when the EMT's wheeled a woman into the room to fill the vacancy in the bed next to me. After all the powers that be came in to get her settled in and interviewed etc, she introduced herself and told me about her many strokes and all she had been going through that lead her to the stroke. I sat listening to her for hours. I was amazed at what a strong and courageous woman she was.

She was 96 years young and had all of her faculties about her. Her hearing was better than mine and she was as sharp as a tack!

She was also diabetic and we shared many of the same problems. We had so much in common and so much to talk about and she understood my emotional outbursts that happened quite often...a side affect of the stroke. I cried often and LOUD! I had no control over it and it didn't matter if I was happy or sad it just came! I looked like afreakin lunatic! Looking back....looking like a lunatic isn't so bad...normal is highly over rated! But then again you're reading the blogs of a woman who loves sitting in the cemetery....blasting "Walkin on Sunshine" and watching the quirky black birds hop across the grass keeping perfect time with the music and ruffling their feather, giving an award winning performance or in some cases just a mating ballet.

I was a little envious of her (lets call her Ms. L) sharp mind, since the stroke I find myself confused and spacey and with huge gaps in my memory. Just yesterday I was getting dressed and forgot how to put my pants on....it came to me after a few minutes but I felt like a moron all the same. Then I wondered to myself, who in their right mind will ever be attracted to me again then pushed it out of my mind so I wouldn't be depressed the entire day.

ANYWAY I got a little side tracked there haha....Ms L told me about back in the early 1900's when she was 5 years old during a major fluepidemic..her mother was out in the fields working and she and her baby brother were playing inside when she got too close to the fireplace and her dress caught on fire. She said she ran screaming out the door and out in the yard, her mother saw her but had to jump fences and animal pens to get to her. By the time her mother reached her, most of her little body was covered in burns and because of the epidemic, there were no doctors around to come help her. Her mother scrubbed the burns daily and wrapped them in sheets. She lived through it and said nothing is painful to her after having experienced that kind of pain. She still had all the scars. I was in awe of her from that moment on. We became the best of friends and I thank God for bringing her into my life to re instill my courage and motivation and start living again.