My husband is alive. I don’t know if you find it awe-inspiring every day when your people, those you love and cherish, are alive each day, but I do. Jason is alive and without fast thinking by witnesses 3 years ago, and good paramedics he might not be. Jason is here and we are married, and that is pretty crazy incredible.
When we started this blog two years ago, Jason had just been discharged from Toronto Rehab, we were still new to TBI life and the very first post I shared was a plea to those that hurt Jason to realize their power and start making penance to the world for their hurtful actions. We didn’t realise then that we had power too. We hadn’t considered that by sharing our experiences we could make the way a bit easier for others. We didn’t know our biggest gains would come when we shared our hearts, with the online world and the people around us. We had no idea that by sharing honestly about how life looks post TBI, sharing even the horribly uncomfortable parts, we would in turn be trusted with the most amazing stories of our friends and family navigating the world in their own way.
We had only started to dream that we might be able to make a difference with our lives, even if it wasn’t in the way we had planned. Over the last two years we’ve tried to share a real picture of TBI, while hopefully highlighting the fact that this is just our picture of TBI, everyone’s recovery and problems will look differently. With this in mind, I want to share Jason’s newest stage in recovery – working! Jason’s doctors made it clear, more than two years ago, that it seemed unlikely he would be able to return to the position he had when he was hurt. What followed was a bizarre path to a new career and a new life in Muskoka, that has too many “coincidences” to be explainable by anything other than the hand of God.
June 5th 2017, Jason started working as the General Manager of Highlander Brewing Company, an outstanding little brewery in South River, Ontario. The owners of this company have been absurdly kind to us over the last year and a half and have been patient and supportive during Jason’s recovery work towards being able to work. I don’t know that I have ever seen my husband happier than when he was able to start working again, it has been good for his soul in ways I can’t describe in one post.
Three years has taught us to focus on gratitude and remember that the battle is never done. Because God is who He is, and my husband is who he is, there are always more chances for life to work out in marvelous, astounding ways. We work hard to remind ourselves of that reality daily, especially as we continue to have interpersonal struggles. We still have people in our life that are unable to empathize with the ways TBI affects our life, and that aren’t afraid to tell us we use the TBI as an excuse. The devastation when we hear something like that is unexplainable. And yet, we have also learned more about goodness and kindness and friendship in the last three years in surprising, heart warming ways. When people reach out to inform Jason that they would deal with brain injury better or some other ridiculous claim, it never fails to crush us. But then, when the emotion side of it is done, it reminds us that we still have a story to tell. There is still a need for life with a brain injury to be discussed because there are still people that need to learn. We hope that our blog has helped enlighten and encourage empathy. And so as we navigate this next stage with Jason working, we will still be writing. Jason is still living with a brain injury, and the return to work doesn’t mark being “healed”. There will be stories to share and so we will write.
With all of our love, on a very happy Life Day 2017.
P.s. if you want to support a great brewery – Highlander Brew Co. deliver’s free in Ontario.
