Monday, June 07, 2010

When anniversaries aren't so great...

I'd really appreciate prayers for my family today. Today marks the one year anniversary of my mother-in-law's tragic horse back riding accident.


A quick recap for those who didn't hear the story - we went to visit her in south Louisiana for a quick day trip. We had a lot of fun hanging out, swimming, eating lunch, and riding horses. My daughter had fun visiting with her Mimi. At the time, Little Miss was only 11 months. We had a great time.

Until mid afternoon, when coming back from a ride with my husband, my MIL's horse ran her into two trees, badly beating her head. My husband saw the entire thing and used his EMT training to help keep her alive until she was airlifted to a local hospital. She was in a coma for a long time with more injuries than I can list. Her body healed but her brain did not. She was technically out of the coma after several weeks but almost zero function. But she was never on life support. That was out of our hands.

She was in the hospital, at home with home health, and at a rehab center in New Orleans with very little progress for months off and on. Finally, we had to foreclose on her home and bankrupt her accounts and put her in a nursing home here in my hometown. She's on Medicaid, and her current status is still a very vegetative state. She can move, a little, sometimes, but no real control or function. She can't talk, can't walk, can't even sit up. The nurses move her from the bed to a wheelchair from time to time. When you visit her, you can tell her she is in there by her eyes - sometimes. But that's it.


She just had her 47th birthday.


We have a lot of questions still, obviously. Why. And especially why, still? It doesn't make sense to my human mind why God would allow one of His children to remain in this state. We've begged for mercy, for God to take her home if she wasn't even going to get better. Yet she remains, and we keep praying. God has a purpose in this and we might not know this side of Heaven.

In my humanness....it just sucks.

But one day I will understand.

Today is hard - especially for my husband and his sister. We just had to deal with Mother's Day, her birthday, and the anniversary all within three weeks of each other. So thank you for the prayers and forgive me if I don't post for a day or two.

3 comments:

Haelie said...

Praying for you and your family, Dear Betsy.

Fliterary said...

I'm so sorry, Betsy. My prayers are with you and your family.

Leslie said...

I'm so sorry :( Life is truly fragile and are bodies are too. My prayers are with you and your family.