Going Home One Year Ago Today

Hello faithful family, friends, and followers. I understand that you may be getting tired of our many anniversaries chronicling events since the accident, but today marks one of the more memorable anniversaries for us.

On the morning of April 25th, 2024, Joy and I got up for the day in her hospital room at Allina Abbott Hospital’s Courage Kenny Inpatient Rehabilitation Institute. We picked out Joy’s clothes and I packed the rest in a suitcase. Joy had been wearing exercise clothes throughout her rehab program so it wasn’t like she was changing out of a hospital gown this time like the morning we flew back to Minnesota, but still, this was different. Instead of heading down the hall to one of her therapy sessions, we were heading home!

I went and got the car out of the hospital ramp as the staff brought Joy down to the discharge area. Tears come to my eyes even now as I think of how wonderful it felt to ease Joy into our car and make our way onto the street heading for home. As Joy looked around, this first day out of a hospital, ambulance, or MedFlight, in over eight weeks, she exclaimed, “I know this place! This is where I have come for years to hospital meetings and training sessions! I didn’t know this was where I’ve been!” And she started to cry tears of joy at the recognition.

As we made our way toward home, we noted the green grass and early buds of green on the trees. We had left Minneapolis on February 20th, so the landscape looked a lot different now. At this point, Joy had not been home for 67 days. I had, with the tremendous help of dear friends, made the house as ready for Joy’s return as it could be with support rails, grab bars, bed adjustments, and removal of rugs and other trip hazards. But, there were still the 17 stairs to go to our second level and the 11 stairs down to the basement. As we drove into the driveway we were both overcome with tears of joy and relief. Lovely neighbors had provided a “Welcome Home” sign complete with balloons as a special gift. Joy entered our home carefully and cautiously, but also confidently. We walked around the main floor, easily climbed the stairs to the second level exploring each room, then back down, on down to the basement and back up again.

We were home, in our home, a home that, for a significant period of time in Joy’s recovery, I didn’t believe could accommodate our “new life” and our new reality. Joy’s complete paralysis of her right side, significant brain damage, and physical trauma, left me little hope that we’d be walking up and down all those stairs, hand in hand, with our tears of joy. But, thanks to the matchless grace and mercy of God and your faithful prayers and support, we were home again. We had just under a week to settle in before we would embark on Joy’s intensive outpatient therapy at Courage Kenny Golden Valley and so we took our time to just enjoy our space, together, miraculously, unbelievably, back in our home once again.

Words really cannot express our thankfulness and gratitude to all of you who have followed us and prayed for us so faithfully over the past 14 months. It is so humbling to have such an amazing, “cloud or witnesses,” having our backs through the darkest of times and as well as the joyful times, times of miraculous answers to those many prayers so well illustrated by the two photos from April 25th, 2024 and a recent photo in our new home.

As we go forward, I want to talk more about the adjustments we are now facing with the reality of the limitations and challenges created by Joy’s permanent brain damage. While we continue to pray for miraculous intervention, we also face the new reality of life this side of the accident. Partial blindness, words that don’t come when called or register when heard, years of study, knowledge, and understanding stolen, all the while experiencing many wonderful abilities and opportunities we never thought would ever be possible. Some days its more challenging than others to balance and appreciate all the elements of that previous sentence.

But for now, home in yet a new home, we continue to marvel at the overwhelming love and mercy of God and you, our family, friends, and followers. As always, please continue your prayers for Joy’s long road of recovery and/or acceptance and adjustment to the realities of the permanent nature of the life we now live.