The very beginning...

Lisa at 6 months old

Ok, I really wanted to keep up with this blogging thing, I am better than before=) 

Starting at the beginning, which I only know because of what I have been told...

Lisa was born on Dec. 19th, 1963. She was a beautiful baby and my mom remembers how so many people would tell her how pretty she was. Sounds fishy I know, what baby isn't beautiful? but you know.
Mom said that she was learning to walk at about 8 1/2 months. She was smart and very happy.  At 9 months old, she was taken to the hospital for a fever. The date in her baby book says it was Sept 21st, I believe...(this is all from memory.) It wasn't until Lisa's surprise 40th birthday party that I found out that when Mom's best friend was having her baby Lisa was being packed in ICE!!!!! I had no idea. Mom never told me that. 

The Dr's could not get her fever down. She was in the hospital for 2 1/2 days and was in a coma. She was paralyzed on her right side, had developed epilepsy and there was nothing anyone could do. The diagnosis was viral encephalitus caused by a mosquito bite. Lisa came home but was now "brain damaged" that is what mom always said, and that is the way we grew up believing, Lisa was just brain damaged. Simple. 

To be a fly on the wall, I would give anything to know how she handled Lisa, and Dad. Dad loved Lisa, he doted on her and was such a good dad. He would not accept Lisa, his only child, as "mentally retarded" he couldn't...one day she was this normal, happy baby and the next, she was brain damaged and to top it off...she had seizures! 

I remember mom told me when I was in high school, how dad would come home from work for lunch and ask mom if Lisa was OK today...you know...Normal... he would withhold her meds for her seizures to see if she really needed them. Mom told him one day after he came home and asked again if she was OK today that "Lisa is mentally retarded and that she will be that way for the rest of her life (our lives)". I am sure she didn't mean to be mean about it...maybe she did. I don't know. She might have just had a moment and told it to herself out loud and lashed out at Dad. She was living it 24/7 and Dad got to get away for awhile. I can't ask her and Dad does not remember. 
The Dr's told mom and dad to put her in an institution because she would be a "vegetable". They must have thought that it would be easier for them to not have her around.  Mom said NO...she is coming home with us. End of Story. 

For Lisa, it is the beginning of the story. Thanks Mom and Dad for showing so many that true love and patience pay off.