STRUGGLING WITH SERENDIPITY
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still unbroken

10/5/2016

6 Comments

 
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(This blog tells my family's story. To see more, click "blog" at the top of this webpage.)

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After two lost weeks, one in intensive care and one at home, I carried a nebulizer to the high school at lunchtime for Beth’s breathing treatment. Pneumonia had set back her stamina by months. A shortened day of school wiped her out, again.
 
On edge and anticipating the next crisis, I felt an initial flash of fear when the phone rang, and relief when it wasn’t an emergency. For the first time in my life, I understood the compulsion to try to feel better through food. That didn’t work, but not for lack of trying. I joined the ranks of emotional eaters and had to buy bigger clothes.
           
The completed elevator at school led to second floor classes for Beth, which created the need to carry her down the stairs during fire drills. I wrote a detailed procedure and helped a therapist from Green Springs lead the staff training. Several teachers volunteered to attend. The principal had bought a heavy vinyl sheet with four handles, two on each long side, like firemen used. Four teachers carried her on the sheet while a fifth moved her empty wheelchair. Concerned about hitting her head on a step, they lifted the sheet higher with extreme caution.
           
“It took awhile for them to realize I don’t break,” Beth said. She also had a new favorite saying: “I’m not broken and I don’t need to be fixed.”
           
During one drill, her Spanish teacher wore a football helmet to make her laugh. She put up with the drills, but disliked being carried outside on the vinyl sheet into a crowd of students. As more time passed, during a pre-planned drill, Beth talked them into breaking the rules with an unplanned stop inside the building at the bottom of the stairs, to lift her into the wheelchair. From there, she pushed herself outside.
           
Riding the elevator every school day with a friend turned into entertainment. Sometimes they added their own elevator music. They flirted with boys on crutches, injured athletes who also used the elevator. When she accidentally bumped the alarm button and nothing happened, hitting the alarm on purpose became a joke.
 
Beth loved to laugh and found humor in her situation that her close friends and family shared. Being a quad (quadriplegic) meant that you could not flip someone off with a middle finger, so raising a fist instead became a inside joke—though I knew that when she could do it the usual way, she wouldn't.  At school, a friend scolded her for not standing up during the Pledge of Allegiance. They made summer plans to go to Cedar Point, famous for its roller coasters, to be first in line because of her wheelchair. At friends' houses or at ours, Beth liked to sit on the couch; when she was asked to get something in another room, she quipped about being tired from too much walking. 
 

“Everyone I know with an injury who is doing well has a sense of humor about it,” Beth said. “You need that.”

6 Comments
Emily Webb, HelpHOPELive link
10/6/2016 08:23:41 am

I read your entries every time they come out and I have to say it was an unexpected pleasure to laugh out loud while reading this one. Humor feels like a completely magical medicine sometimes. What a blessing in the midst of new challenges and changing circumstances.

Reply
Cindy Kolbe link
10/6/2016 12:39:28 pm

Hi Emily, So nice to hear from you! Thank you for your kind comments! I love your phrase, magical medicine, and I agree that there is power in humor. Thanks for all you do through your awesome nonprofit: www.helphopelive.org!!

Reply
Miriam link
10/8/2016 12:51:49 am

I absolutely love how your daughter has the normal sense of humor of a teenager despite what may be going on with her life. She reminds me a lot of my friend Shannon, who I've known since high school. Shannon has cerebral palsy and doesn't let that stop her. She has done cheer leading, pageantry, and even surfs. The world needs many people like Shannon and Beth. Way to go on raising such a positive young lady.

Reply
Cindy Kolbe link
10/8/2016 10:30:16 am

I love her sense of humor, too, Miriam! Thank you for sharing your friend's story. Shannon and Beth have the gift of seeing a hopeful world of possibilities. I wish that could be bottled and given away!

Reply
Deb Courtney
7/23/2018 11:04:49 am

TY for posting I needed the chuckle this morning. As always beautifully written with love while not ignoring reality.
Hope your settled in your new place.
God bless & keep you and yours.

Reply
Cindy Kolbe
7/23/2018 01:52:14 pm

Thanks, Deb! Yes, we’re settled in our new place. It’s good to be closer to our kids. Hope all is well with you!

Reply



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