February

It's been a mostly uneventful, yet stressful month. We haven't really gotten to do much. We haven't really gone anywhere, but my brother had a series of mini strokes one morning. Three, to be exact. We aren't really sure when it happened, but he woke up one morning and basically fell out of bed because the left side of his body was not working. 

Everyone was home, thankfully and they managed to help him down the stairs and into the car and they actually took him to the hospital themselves! They put him on blood thinners and whatever else to help with the blockages in his blood vessels but it got worse before they got a handle of it. We didn't really realize how bad it was at first as my niece said that he was okay and that they were going to keep him overnight to watch him. He didn't really want visitors and we didn't want to stress him out by forcing ourselves on him, so the kids gave us updates occasionally. 

They approved him for some special physical therapy program so he will be there for a couple of weeks at least. I ended up taking his kids some meals. His kids haven't really had to cook for themselves so after about a week of eating leftovers and fending for themselves, I figured I would bring them some things so that they would not have to worry about it. Apparently, my sister came into town the same day and was wondering the same thing so everyone was able to get together and check up on the kids. We took them out to eat and they ordered them some extra food to take back with them as well. Then my mom took them shopping for some groceries and my sister attempted to help them with some meal prep ideas. 

In the end, I think they had more food than they could manage...especially since my brother had a lot of frozen items that he normally keeps stocked up around the house but the kids hadn't really had to figure out what to do with them yet. 

His wife mostly just stayed in the hospital with him. The kids aren't used to being on their own, but they are working on stepping up to take care of things as they are not young. They are both in college, same as ours, but they live at home and their oldest is going to graduate in a few months actually, but she doesn't even drive by herself. She did eventually manage to get her license but she isn't really comfortable driving on her own yet...and her parents aren't really comfortable with her doing it on her own either. Collin, the youngest, was between semesters, luckily, so he was able to take her to school and pick her up that first week and run errands to bring his parents things at the hospital. 

Anyway, the whole experience has been a bit of a shock and has given everybody quite a scare. My brother has a long road ahead of him, but we are very thankful that he is still with us.