My Mom's Favorite Ornaments

Twenty four years ago our lives were forever changed. My sister, then age eight, collapsed at school with a brain aneurysm. I was six at the time and will never forget how the chapel service at school was interrupted so that everyone could pray for her immediately. After a doctor at Lewisburg hospital told my mom that it was a drug overdose and that she would be fine and to take her home, my mom demanded that she be moved to Harrisburg Polyclinic Hospital where they found the problem. My parents were told that there was really no hope for her and that she would bleed to death. What they did not know was that by that time, many, if not hundreds of people were praying for her. By the next morning, the bleeding had stopped and she started to respond to her name. Numerous tests were done and it was determined that she would need surgery. She was taken to Philadelphia Children's Hospital. She ended up having two surgeries as they did not get everything removed the first time. Her head was shaved except for about an inch or so around her head. The doctor's could not give any assurances as to how she would be after the surgeries. She could lose her abilities to feed herself, walk, etc. During this time at the hospital, my parents met many people and of course, children. They listened to other parent's stories and also shared how God had spared my sister's life up to that point. After the surgeries, my sister could still see, talk, walk, etc. In fact, she got tired of the many doctors that would visit her to test her vision, coordination, speaking abilities, etc. Thank goodness that the hospital had many activities for children to do. With Christmas being just around the corner, they had them making all sorts of things. One such project was making ornaments for the Christmas tree. My sister made the simple ornaments pictured above. To anyone they seem so simple, but to my mom, they were symbols of life and hope. Mom has kept them through the years as a reminder to us of our greatest gift that year - the gift of life. She keeps them packed away with our Christmas stuff, but every year we look at them and remember what happened. After four weeks in the hospital, my sister did make it home for Christmas that year but was not allowed to walk around without help. She would crawl if she needed to go somewhere, which made my grandma cry. I guess gram wondered if she would ever be able to walk properly again. I spent all those weeks in various friends and relatives households, but I'll never forget the day she came home, dressed in her red and white Care Bear pajamas. She was ready to be home and wanted grandma's famous brown flour gravy for supper. Her hair eventually grew back, she wanted it to grow in red, her favorite color. To look at her today, you would never know that anything happened to her. The only lasting effect from it is that she has a short term memory problem. She made it through school, my mom tutoring her almost every night. Most of the time, she would forget what she studied before taking a test due to her memory problem, but the teachers graciously worked with her and found ways to make it work. Today, she is the head housekeeper in one of the buildings at Country Meadows and can drive (red car, of course!) and do mostly everything by herself. My mom will probably always keep the ornaments as they are lasting mementos of the past and a reminder of the future. By the way, my sister has an autographed picture of the Philadelphia Eagles from that year - they came to the hospital and passed out gifts and pictures. And don't touch her head, she still is protective of it! :)