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Wednesday, February 11, 2009

CC, My Big Sister

My big sister, CC as people call her has lived one of the toughest lives I've ever seen one go through. We are close and she is important to me.

She is rough around the edges, red-neck, loud and sometimes very rude and abrasive. I guess your wondering what I love, huh?

She spent her childhood looking after us 3 younger sisters. She is 9 years older than me so, 8 more than Ju and 7 more than J. Not so abnormal was it? Well back then our parents were insane, OK, I said insane. Our mom who is old now and much different was a pill addict then, black-beauties and Quaaludes. Our dad who died in 1989 a very different man, was back then a drunkard.

I remember when I was 4 they were fighting in the kitchen. I was standing in the doorway, dad by the table and mom by the stove. CC was trapped between them by the table and didn't know how to get out of there. She decided to break and run and just then mom picked up a pot of boiling water from the stove and threw it at dad but it all hit CC, she suffered serious 2nd degree burns. She was determined to protect us from such as that.

Her life was not merely seeing that we got up each day and checking on us occasionally she took on the role of a parent and protected us for many years. She instinctively and compassionately gave herself up to that completely. There were many, many instances that I won't go into detail about but you have the idea of the life she was handed by two irresponsible parents. She left home at 17 and got married to an abusive man who tormented her for years while having 4 children. One died at birth, a boy.

Her last child V had the whooping cough at 3 and went into sudden arrest, and stopped breathing for 7 minutes. I was standing there when it happened. I remember my dad on his knees above V breathing into him and then while pushing on his tiny chest crying out to God every time, screaming God's name and begging Him to save this child - with every rest of his breathing for V. There was brain damage and respiratory damage that he never recovered from. As he was growing up he would take a breath and it would be his last one. You had to be there with him, you had to have eyes on him 24 hours a day. He had to sleep with her so she could feel him stop breathing. She went years without descent sleep.

He was left with epilepsy after the whooping cough and 7 minutes and had so many seizures the public school system removed him from school, the county supplied a tutor for him. He averaged at least 30 seizures a month (often more) and had back to back grand mall seizures. He was recorded at Human Hospital having had 11 grand malls back to back in their hospital. People don't live through 11 but he did, God has provided a way for this child over and over again. The doctors could not believe it! His life and hers has been an example of God's power for 65 years. His doctors, hospitals, his acupuncturist, nurses, neighbors, family have all had to give the credit to God, there is no other explanation for his life.

Not being normal physically or mentally he was drinking at a party and left on his motorcycle, he was about 19. His pant leg got caught on the bike and he lost control of the bike at a very high speed. The bike went over and he was dragged (measured by the police) for over 325 feet (parachute pants are extremely hard to tear and should never be worn on a bike), his head pounding constantly on the pavement, the helmet is protection for only one hit then it is fractured inside. The bike only stopped when it went off the road and into a pine tree, his head now minus the helmet, following it and it busted his head open.

He lived, He was in a deep coma for 7 full months before he began to come out of it. He had laid there with a broken neck and several other broken bones they couldn't repair in his condition. When he woke it was a slow process it didn't happen instantly like in the movies. It took weeks for him to come out of the coma in stages.

When he woke fully he was a vegetable. He had to have a lot of physical repair and mental and emotional. He was committed into an in-house recovery program for over a year where he was taught to walk, talk and think again. His brain had to be retrained for every task, even memory, his brain and body had to be retrained.

He is 45 now and she is 65. She has spent his whole life taking care of him. No marriages or children were possible for him. And prior to that she spent taking care of us.


I can remember my mom and dad fighting and our big sister having us all hooked together hand to hand like a little train walking down dark roads in the late night. Taking us to our grandparents miles away to take care of us and get us out of it all.

She could tell when they were not "OK" and would pretend to play hide and seek with us in the attic, really she was hiding us and saving us.

She is abrasive and rude sometimes and authoritative but also so loving that it's indescribable. She can be rough around the edges all she wants to and I will take it, I owe her that at least

She's not dedicated to a church or a group of any kind, she is rough with her language also but she has to vent somehow. She has spent her life for other people and I know that in her heart she knows Christ, she has said so, and gives all that a human body can possibly give. Sometimes I think she is going to run out or crash and burn but she doesn't. God gives her all she needs to carry on.

She lives in a low income trailer park and is a taxi for all the older people there, getting them to their doctor appointments and grocery stores. Visiting the ones that are put in a home and helping with the dinners and special needs that these people have.

No she doesn't attend church regularly but I know God loves her, even her abrasiveness. He has carried her through more than any human being I know. I know He watches out for her and is lenient with her and soothes her. And she knows that God has seen her through.

Now, she has in the last year had a stroke, was diagnosed with distonia and recently had a 'bleed out' where she almost bled to death and again God reached down and touched her. The Neurologist said that she has so many, many tiny blood clots on her brain that it's impossible to count them all.

I remember praying Lord I don't know what your plan is for CC I just know I need to beg you to leave her here with me, I need her in my life, please don't take her yet. A selfish prayer but one I couldn't help but pray.

She is the toughest and strongest person I have ever known in my life and she is a blessing to many people above and beyond her roughness. Multiply what I have told you the bad and the good by thousands to encompass the daily events involved with this life. Imagine!

She is all of those things I named and she is love. Her and her son's life have been one example after the other of the True and Almighty power of God, witnessed by so many.


Thank You Lord for my big sister, thank You. Amen

I love you CC

3 comments:

  1. I love you, too, CC.

    Thank you, God.

    Jean

    ReplyDelete
  2. This post was so powerful. After reading it I felt like I know her, and if I knew her, I would love her too. You are blessed.

    love you kiddo,
    Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're sister sounds like a true diamond in the rough. Perhaps a little rough on the edges but a true gem none the less. You have my prayers that she is with you for many years to come.

    ReplyDelete

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