RIP MY BROTHER

Hello and blessings to all.

2023 has not been a good year for me. Coming on the heels of my sister Dorothy's passing in February, I find myself weeping once again for the loss of my oldest brother, Michael.

He passed away a few days ago, just one month after his 72nd birthday. I am heartbroken.

I find myself walking around in kind of a haze, with tears and joy as I remember my dear brother Mike. He was always so protective of me, always including me when we played basketball or flag football with all the neighborhood kids. He would warn the other boys to go easy on me, I happened to be the only girl playing. At that time, there were no other girls my age who wanted to play, but I loved all these games because my brother knew it meant a lot to me to be with him. I always looked up to him, he was my pal.

Although there would be five other siblings to follow us, I was the youngest for the longest, it would be four years before my sister Crissy was born.

I was the little princess.

The years flew by, as all of us #silverbloggers know, but so much life will be remembered. A good life, with sweet memories.

Like most families, we shared birthdays, Christmas holidays, graduations, weddings, and new babies. We also had our share of pain.

In October 1994, Mike was out in the woods hunting alone, he knew he shouldn't go out alone, but he was an outdoorsman who loved nature, and he had been hunting since he was 16 years old, he had plenty of experience. His plan was to just go out for an hour or so after work that day.

The day that changed his life forever.

It was around 4 pm, out into the woods Mike went with his bow, off to find the tree stand he and our other brother built. In short order, the tree stand was located, and Michael climbed up without a problem. But as he was settling in a weakened plank gave way and he was hurled to the ground landing him upside down with arms outstretched.

Amazingly, he never lost consciousness. But both arms were shattered, and his neck hurt, his bow was still strapped to his back, and as he lay on top of it, his neck pain increased, and he found he just couldn't move. He couldn't get the bugs out of his eyes or the raccoon off his chest, he had to just lay there waiting for the creatures to move on, scary shit stuff.

It would be another eight hours until he was found. His wife was working late at the hospital, and she was the only one who knew he was going hunting. She didn't know he never made it out of the woods until she got home after midnight.

As panic set in, family phones started ringing, Mike was missing. It took some time to get the police and the family out searching but it was less than two hours to get him out. The paramedics were top-notch, the chopper was on its way to take our brother to the trauma center.

Much worse than we had hoped.

Our entire family waited hours, helping each other to stay calm and positive, but when the trauma team came to speak to us, we listened to every word.

Mike was paralyzed from the neck down. We were crushed, the cries and gasps flew through the waiting room.

We still had hope, the surgeon explained that he had not severed his spinal cord, but compressed it making it swell, hence the paralyses. His arms would need surgery, but he would regain the use of his arms, if and when the swelling in the spinal cord receded.

It took eleven months for us to see his one big toe move. We jumped for joy!

After another year of living at a rehab center, Mike took his first step.

Talk about true grit.

My brother worked so hard during the years that followed his accident, he was able to walk, not perfectly but he still got around. His arms were another story. The combination of the cord swelling, and the multiple fractures had left him unable to bring his hand to his mouth, hence, he had to bull through learning how to feed himself, dress himself, you get the picture.

He did it.

Hours and hours of rehab and another year gone by, my amazing, strong brother was able to eat all by himself, always joking about how he needed a bib and that his methods may not be pretty, but it gets the job done.

He was only forty-three years old. With both his children in college, life would become
financially challenging. But he nor his lovely wife ever complained about it, life was the most important thing to them.

SO VERY HAPPY.

A huge highlight in my life was my daughter's wedding, simply said pure joy.

Want to guess who said..." I wouldn't miss it for the world", you guessed it, Brother Mike and Kathy would be there to share our happiness. It was awesome.

I will never forget my brother; he was such a big part of my life.

May you rest in peace, and Bro, keep an eye on us, we all can use a bit of your strength, faith, and love now and again.

Much love,
Jackie O