Blind Courage

Joseph Retherford

Description

Imagine yourself as a senior in high school, at a successful turning point in your life: you excel in academics and extracurricular activities as you strive to make your way to college. You have achieved the first steps to becoming an independent adult, and everything seems to be going your way. You are fearless with unlimited potential. And then . . . Bang!On a family hunting trip in Mexico, your life is changed forever when you are shot in the face. The lights go out; you cant see anything. All of a sudden, the independence, the promise of a meaningful future you were working so hard to attain, has seemingly been stripped from you. You find yourself lying on the couch in the dark. Time is ticking by and opportunities are fading Do you give up or get up?

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Memoir

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 19 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462411870
• Langue: English

Extrait

BLIND Courage
JOSEPH RETHERFORD

 
Copyright © 2016 Joseph Retherford.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
Inspiring Voices
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
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ISBN: 978-1-4624-1186-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1187-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016905745
 
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 04/15/2016
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 The Bad Sign
Chapter 2 The Gourmet Sibling Tag Team
Chapter 3 The Cliché Comes to Life
Chapter 4 My Superhero Resemblance
Chapter 5 Mama Bear Protects Her Cub
Chapter 6 A Saint Sighting
Chapter 7 The Start of a Journey
Chapter 8 Something You Never Want Your Doctor to Say
Chapter 9 Getting in the World Again
Chapter 10 Back to School
Chapter 11 I’m Progressing … Right?
Chapter 12 The End of One Journey Is the Beginning of Another
Epilogue
CHAPTER 1
T he Bad Sign
Beep! Beep! Beep! Stupid alarm. I usually give myself about forty-five minutes to get ready. That gives me time to eat breakfast, brush my teeth, do my hair, get some clothes on, kiss my mom good-bye, and take my time getting out the door. Snooze! I can do all that in thirty-eight minutes. Snooze! Thirty-one minutes is sufficient. Snooze! Twenty-four. By the time I actually get out of bed, I have about ten minutes, so I only have time for the necessities. Clothes, Mom, and I’ll grab breakfast and eat a piece of gum. Sorry, expensive corrected teeth. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I can still make it to jazz before they tune.
I hear my sister in the living room. “What are you doing, you lazy bum?” she asks someone. Who is she talking to? Dad should be at work by now.
I continue to rush down the hall and see him lying on the couch with his legs up on the arm. “What are you doing, lazy bum?” It’s always a comedy show around our house. I thought it’d be funny if I ask the exact question again.
“Well, Joe, I decided against work today,” he answers.
We’re also masters of sarcasm. It’s hard to get straight answers here. If he’s feeling good enough to joke around, he should be okay and doesn’t need our help. He’s probably a little dehydrated or dizzy. He’s been going to the gym before work, so maybe he just pushed himself too hard.
My sister and I rush to work and school respectively. We don’t think anything of it, leaving Dad lying there.
Today is Tuesday, so there’s drum line practice after school. Drum line is a pretty big thing at our school. We’re the defending champs of our region. Oh! Crap! I forgot my music. I’ll have to run home after school and sacrifice my snack-chill-out time with my friends. That’s a small price to have to pay though. Those who forget their music get humiliated in front of everyone.
It’s an uneventful day at school. The usual joking around to make the day go by faster and the unintended nap in calculus doesn’t hurt anyone. I’m thankful I’m one of the few people who just get math. I can sleep in class and then learn it during my fourth period the next day. I’m a teacher’s assistant, so I’ll have time. Extra perks like that make senior year that much more survivable. I have to take advantage of it because it sure isn’t going to be like this next year in college.
Finally the last bell rings, and I run out to my car. Thankfully my last class is next to the student parking lot, which gives me a head start on beating everyone else out. It gets ridiculous if you try to sit in the rush of the students trying to get home. Three hundred cars and one exit is not a very good combination. I beat the rush, but unfortunately the elementary school doesn’t know I have to find my music. Never-ending trails of army ants wearing big backpacks fill the crosswalks and stall my efforts.
I finally make it home with about ten minutes before I have to leave again. I bet I left it on the mantel … nope. Maybe someone put it in my room … nope. Where did it go? I’ll call my sister, Nay. Hopefully it didn’t get thrown away.
“Hey, Nay. Have you seen my music? I thought I left it on the mantel, but I can’t find it. I have to leave pretty soon,” I explain to my sister over the phone.
“Leave? Where are you going?” she asks. “No one talked to you?”
“No. Why? What happened?”
“Oh … well, Dad’s in the hospital. Uncle James had to come get him after Mom left for the funeral. He called her because he wasn’t feeling well.” What? Hospital? My mom left this morning to go to a funeral. I guess Dad stayed home from work today.
“Oh. I guess I’m not going to drum line. Are you going to the hospital now? I want to go,” I say. Family will always come before anything. I don’t know how much I’ll actually help at the hospital, but I know I have to be there.
“Yeah, Sara’s coming home from Sacramento. She’ll meet us at the house, and then the three of us can go together …” Sara is my other sister.
I get off the phone and just stand there. I’m shocked, stunned, scared, and feel like I’ve been punched in the stomach. Dad had a heart attack and a stroke before, so for the last couple of months, he’s been really smart health-wise. He’s been staying away from the carbs and sweets and has been going to the gym in the mornings before work. I thought he was on the right path to a healthy and long life. What could have happened to him? He provides so much support and love for me; I cannot even imagine what my life would be like without him.
Time stops as I sit waiting for my sisters. It’s weird how your mind plays all the possibilities that could happen to a loved one when you don’t know any information. How bad is it? Is he still alive? Calling him a lazy bum is the last thing I said to him. Is that going to be the last thing he hears from me?
Thankfully, they finally get to the house, and we rush to the car. They tell me how Mom and my aunt were on the way to a funeral and no one was home to take Dad to the hospital except Uncle James, who had just gotten off a graveyard shift. Mom then had to get ahold of him so he could take Dad to the emergency room. Through this whole story, I just wonder why I didn’t know anything—or even that he was in the emergency room. Someone could have left a voice mail on my phone so I would know to come home after school so I could go to the hospital to see Dad. What if I hadn’t forgotten my music and had just hung out at school and didn’t come home until after drum line? Would I just have walked in, and no one would have been there? I guess it’s a good thing I forgot my music. I have so many things flying through my mind on the longest car ride ever.
We finally get into the crowded parking lot of the emergency room. We circle it so many times that we try to convince ourselves we’re qualified to park in the expecting-mother spot because my sister will have a baby some time in the next couple of years; she’s married, and we think that counts. We take another lap and then eventually find a spot we can actually park in. The three of us walk in to find our mom standing by the automatic sliding door.
“They finally got him a room. He’s through that door. You guys can go see him,” she tells us while pointing to a closed double door.
We walk back only to be yelled at by the first nurse who sees us.
“We can only allow one at a time. Two of you are going to have to go wait in the waiting room.”
We pretend that we don’t hear her and try to keep walking. We slip past the nurses’ desk and past two more patients’ rooms.
“Excuse me!” she says sternly and puts her hand on my shoulder.
“Can we just say hi really quick?” my sister asks calmly as we’re still working toward Dad’s room.
“No. There’s no room,” she says, but we still walk as we talk to her.
By this time, we’ve made it to Dad’s room.
“Hi, Dad!” Sara says quickly.
“Hey, Dad,” Nay and I say simultaneously.
“Okay. You got to say hi. Now two of you have to go wait outside,” Mrs. Mean Nurse tells us. Nay stays because she has seniority, and Sara and I follow orders and go back to the waiting room. Nurses should be nice and accommodating. Obviously the families are grieving and are going through a hard time. They should be able to respect the family’s desire to see their loved one. Who knows if there will be another chance.
Waiting rooms at hospitals are not uplifting. They should fix the television to play something to boost spirits and make people feel happy and laugh. It’s always the sad stories on Oprah or Maury or something. All these people are here because something bad happened to their loved one, and they need a pick-me-up. They don’t need to be hearing sad stories about the kid who lost both their parents in a car accident. They also should not be playing Scrubs , where the doctors are messing with their patients. There’s definitely a time and place for funny doctor shows but not in a hospital. What would it take to get a little SpongeBob in here?
Mom gives us the update about Dad. She says th