Home of the Four Trans

My younger sister made this comment after noting how happy Justin was even after throwing up. Instead of freaking out about how gross it was to have all this gunk come out of his mouth and smother onto his (and Mommy’s) clothes, he smiled and scrunched his face in jubilation.

“He was probably thinking how much better he felt now that he’s thrown up whatever made him feel icky.”

There’s a thing or two to be learned here: 1) My sister is a genius 2) My Justin is a model of how life should be perceived–with optimism. He’s been through more physical trauma than I could ever imagine (he has the scars to remind us of it), been poked and prodded at by people who approach him with such friendliness (who can he trust?), has rotten egg smelling medicine (Captopril) injected into his mouth 3 times a day, along with other not-so-pleasant tasting medicines….Yet, he always has the endurance and spirit to smile.

There’s this picture I have of him a few days post-Glenn: his scar is deeply bruised, purple, he had just been extubated, there’s a (unexplainable) bruised eye, suffered a stroke. He turns to Loi’s I-phone, as if there were not a care in the world, and smiled, this lopsided smile with one eye squinting (because half of his face was affected by the stroke). It’s heartbreaking, but so beautiful. His smile is always a reminder to appreciate the what is, the light of every moment of every day.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Heart Disease, Justin. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.