Today is Mom’s birthday! She is 72 years old today. We celebrated by getting cake for all the doctors, nurses, staff and hospital friends who have played a pivotal role in her being alive today.
We invited Gil and his wife who was mom’s first roommate on the neurology floor. He kept watch over her during non visiting hours and prayed over her daily. He and his wife have become a second family for us, they speak not a lick of English but we have found ways to communicate with each other. Smiles and hugs really don’t need a language. They were so excited to see how well our mom is doing compared to when they last saw her.
We also invited Clara, another dear friend, whose mom was also a roommate to our mom for quite a while. Clara brought us bread, sent us recipes and wrote out key Portuguese phrases for us to learn. Her and her mom have the sweetest of hearts.
We invited Petra up from Hospital Administration as she has become a dear friend as well who has been crucial in helping us navigate this foreign hospital system and helping us in every way she could, even bringing Matt’s children some toys that her daughter had outgrown so his kids had toys to play with.
And of course her neurosurgeon, who did the surgery on our mom, and saved her life stopped by and enjoyed cake with us. The nursing staff is too busy to gather in one spot at the same time for a picture but ALL of these people have played a crucial role in helping our family navigate the biggest nightmare of our lives. They have helped us in ways we will never be able to adequately say thank you…but everyone loves cake and chocolate cake always says thank you. Happy birthday Mom and thank you to all of our friends (here and back home), who have helped us navigate such a difficult situation. All our love!
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