The Stroke...of Madness

We got the call in the early morning about ten. Backing up a few weeks, my grandmother was having signs of a stroke; headache, blurred vision, numbness, but she ignored it saying, “I have never been sick a day in my life. I don’t need a doctor like all those other old women at Bingo who are on every medication you can think of, I’m fine.” I made my aunt and my mother aware of the situation, but no one would listen to this child! “She’ll be fine,” they said shrugging me off. Until...
 
The phone rang and I could hardly understand my grandmother on the other end, “Thumthins wong” I heard her say, I motioned to Vince, who was home, he had no job.  She said, “Tum down here.” I told Vince to run down my grandmothers, something was seriously wrong and he immediately did. I kept my grandmother on the phone as he raced down the street, not far from where I lived, maybe forty rowhouses. Everything went so quick I don’t honestly know what happened.
 
Matt. 9:12 But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
 
My uncle lived two doors from my grandmother (yes we all lived pretty close to one another) and Vince had run to grandmothers, my Uncle was leaving his house, saw Vince, and somehow, Vince came home and said, “She’s going to the hospital!” It’s all jumbled to me because this was the grandmother that I had learned to love after a childhood of her being uptight and far removed from all the grandkids, I felt I had finally gotten to know her and to LOVE her. And not for her money either and she knew this too, because I couldn’t tell you how many times I told her to spend every dime so her kids got NOTHING when she passed away. We’d always laugh about that. We had learned to love each other and it felt good to be loved by her, I’ll admit that.
 
But here she was, going the hospital. Turns out she had a stroke and was paralyzed on her left side. Vince and I would go to see her (we went that very day!), and she’d say, “Are you coming tomorrow?” Like a helpless babe, this pillar of my grandmother, lay there, reaching out, to me. “Of course, grandmom,” I whispered. And day after day, I was at the hospital, brushing her hair, bringing new housecoats, being a friend to her, when everyone else abandoned her. They of course were working on the “How much is this gonna cost.” While I was concerned with nurturing my grandmother back to health.
 
Mark 5: 26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
 
Okay, so they visited when they could, but I was not going to let her go through this alone. I had finally gotten a grandmother and I would be darned if I was going to lose her!
 
They informed the family that she needed to go into a rehab hospital, Physical Therapy would help her learn how to walk again and to speak clearer. Her words, “Will you come with me?” brought tears to my eyes as I knew, this was a job that God  placed in my heart and wanted me to do. I was committed to God and anything He put in my path to do, I did, and this was not a job at all, this was my grandmother! Her family was concerned with, "What is this going to cost us."
 
Luke 10:2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
 
I rode in an ambulance for the first time in my life when they transported grandmother to the PT hospital. Her kids couldn’t get off of work to accompany her and asked if I would go with her. Of course! One of the hottest summers in Baltimore, I spent every single day (except Sundays) going to Physical Therapy with my grandmother, learning the exercises, so  when she’d finally come home, she could continue to do the work. I would be right there with her.

Next up... her homecoming