My Sister Dee is Getting Ready for Christmas

It seems like a long time ago that our dear sister almost lost her life, yet here it is almost a year ago and life goes on.

She has accomplished a lot, but the most important thing of all is that Dee continues to have a zest for life,having her wonderful sense of humor and a deep love for her friends and family. I remember the day not too long ago when my husband David and I were visiting her and Van had brought her tamales. These tamales happen to be one of her favorite take-out meals. All of sudden she burst out laughing, it was such a contagious laugh that her visitors started laughing with her, we didn’t know why…we just knew that she was having such a good time. Minutes later when she could finally speak she told us that the tamales were so good that she licked her fingers; she said “see you don’t need fingers to enjoy finger-licking food”.

Dee continues to work on walking on her prosthetic legs and giving it her best, but the task is a very difficult one. It is the equivalent of trying to learn to walk on stilts. When I went with her a couple of months ago for the final fitting of her legs Dee pushed her therapist till they “got the fitting right”. We left that day and Dee carried her legs home, they weigh eight pounds each. To Dee it was like she was taking a brand new spanking set of hot wheels home. She was beaming all the way home. We stopped and celebrated, she took me to Subway and ordered her favorite Subway sandwich and ate it with gusto, she was starving after working so hard on standing and walking on those legs. Currently Dee puts on her legs for a few minutes a day and walks with the aid of a walker, my sister tells me jokingly that it is wonderful to get her butt off the seat and let gravity take hold of it.

Over the last few months Dee has attended weddings, hosted a wedding at her house, attended several birthday parties, learned to clean her house from her wheelchair, went on vacation in the mountains of New Mexico, got her home broken into and robbed twice (gotten over that), painted her living room, and this month is out and about preparing for her Christmas.

As I dwell on the past few months I wonder how Dee made it far and the answer pops quickly in my head…by the wonderful grace of God.

I am so happy we have the wonderful opportunity to prepare for our 2009 Christmas celebration.

Merry Christmas! Go Aunt Dee!!