Feb 24, 2020

I have had two strokes. After the first stroke, I lost the ability to speak, nor could I walk. So I had a work out, but I lived at the YMCA. It was the supportive housing residence. I had a case worker, and he, my brother, and his wife came from California to see me. God bless. My brother’s wife has been so dear to me. She has been like an angel. See my brother brought her home pregnant. My God, in those days, what a scandal. So she really befriended me. In recent years, I asked her why she befriended me. “Because,” she said, “I needed an ally in the family.”

So anyway, then she became a teacher and she did her teaching internship at my high school. So she lived with us. So it was kind of neat to get to know my sister in that way. We’d drive back and forth to school everyday. It was kind of neat and I learned a lot about driving. I was a student at this time.

And she, her father had been in the military, so she herself had done a lot of traveling through her life. So she used to talk to me about all these different places. She got kind of an education that way. So I didn’t have to go traveling to learn a lot of things, which is kind of neat, unusual and neat.

But I have done a lot of traveling. Actually when I was a teenager, I got pregnant quite young. I wasn’t even 20 yet. It’s a long story how that happened. I won’t bother you with it. I had a dear friend living in Boston and at that time, abortions were legal in New York, but no place else in the country.

Oddly enough, I went to Boston to have an abortion. I didn’t want my parents to know I was pregnant. I did a lot of things by myself. I lived there for awhile and I flew into New York. I came to New York and I flew, and I came to New York to have the abortion. It was Upstate in a place called Mazi.

I was. I’ve had lots of adventures, I’m proud to say. And I have a very adventurous spirit, and I think that’s helped me survive. I’ve had two strokes now. The first one put me in a coma for five months. The doctor said I was going to die. They don’t know why I didn’t die. They don’t know why lived. They don’t know what causes the illness. They don’t know what cures it. It’s called TTP. That’s what the doctors call it, it’s a shortened version of this very long Latin name. You can look it up in the internet. I had TTP, this scary illness and I survived it. I think it’s just my adventurous experience.

Melody got her PhD in teaching and then in recent years she became a pastor, which I’m sure she’s very good at it because she’s very empathetic and very loving, not just with me, but everybody. She just has that kind of heart.

My love for my sister-in-law is what saved my life I think. Best medicine is love. I’m sure.