Sorry this one is late, but I plan to do 2 today. :)
Just wanted to get something in here for Day 286. It was a challenging day. The first of the month always is; there are bills to pay, accounts to balance, transfers to initiate, and of course, some shopping to do.
This month we added helping my X to get his first haircut since May when he was rushed into life-saving surgery, battling a flesh-eating bacteria, and came out of it only losing his right leg (instead of his life). He's still adjusting to that loss. Plus, there are so many other aspects to his daily living situation that are big adjustments for him - and by extension, for us, particularly, my kids.
Two of those kids helped out in what was needed to help him yesterday. By the time the 3 of us returned home very late last night the mood was somber. WE are used to the challenges faced with disability issues, in particular with mobility issues that he is just beginning to realize. It was sad to watch him struggle and really notice that there are some things he will no longer be able to do, at least not in the way he's grown accustomed to over the years.
I think back to all the years he avoided knowing about the various "special needs" of our kids, all the time he wasted really getting to know them because he didn't want to face their realities: neuro-motor issues, strokes, heart defects, stuff that affected how they learned, how they walked, how they talked, and ultimately how they each grew up taking on challenges that the majority of their peers would never have to face - doing so with grace, dignity, and determination. X certainly missed a lot.
Is it "karma" or "fate" or "some divine providence" that is now subjecting him to the many of the very same challenges his kids faced early on in their lives? While none of them actually lost a limb, some did have huge issues getting those limbs to work; and the brain issues... while not caused by the same thing the challenge of making weak or non-working areas of the brain either work or find an area to pick up the slack was still present.
It's interesting to contemplate - is it "payback" time for X in all the ways he treated us? Will helping him be like 'heaping hot coals' upon him when he realizes that the very ones he hurt so deeply are the only ones helping him out now? Will it make a difference? Will he have a change of heart - a real, true, change that results in him being a nicer, more compassionate person in the long run?
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