Tess ~
Due to medical reasons, I had to give up my teaching career in 2014. When I went on disability, Mom made “lemonade” out of those lemons by saying that I would have more time to help her on a day to day basis with Dad as he declined. When my disability was terminated and Mom was diagnosed with leukemia, I went back to teaching in 2021 after 7 years off. She kept telling me, “we will get through this together, that life had given us some lemons so we just need to make some lemonade!” That year all I was doing was surviving. I felt I wasn’t doing anything well – taking care of Mom, teaching, being there for my boys. Mom kept telling me, we can do this… and I would go make some frozen lemonade. 
Mom looked at the deep brain stimulators that were placed in both hemispheres of Dad’s brain as lemonade. Dad’s Parkinson’s was caught early so he was able to live with it a long time. Eventually his condition got to the point that Dad had to take a medical retirement. Mom and Dad looked at all of the information and decided to move forward with the DBS. When Mom and I were first allowed back into recovery, seeing Dad in so much pain was gut wrenching. Mom and Dad started second guessing having the stimulators implanted. However, it was an amazing Medical Intervention that was a blessing, giving them several years of “lemonade” together with all that they were able to do.
At the Veterans Day Assemblies at my middle school each year, we would have a speaker, associated with the military in some way, talk to the students. Listening to a WWII vet discuss how ashamed we should all be by how the Vietnam vets were treated, I heard the few stories that Dad would share about his time in the service over and over in my mind. It hit me hard when Dad had said he had never been recognized for his service when we talked about it later that night over family dinner. Family dinner was the best time for me growing up and I think my boys have enjoyed it as well. I’ve asked them to keep the tradition going – no electronics at the table, we talk to each other about our day, we laugh and joke, and we have serious conversations.
While Dad was in the operating room, I passed the time with our family writing a speech to honor Dad and we were blessed to have him proudly stand beside me while I gave that speech, just two months after his surgery! Our school was taking part in Rachel’s Challenge that year and Rachel’s father was at our school to share what a wonderful person Rachel was. Excerpt from my speech: “Rachel Scott was a young lady who was the first person killed in the Columbine High School Tragedy on April 20, 1999. Afterwards, her parents found a school essay she wrote that included, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same. – Rachel Scott.” Rachel was a very special person. She would stand up to people who were bullying others, because unlike the nursery rhyme, she realized that sticks, stones and words can hurt you. Where there is hurt, there are scars.”
I have to chuckle that 10 years later, that Rachel’s Challenge reference in my Dad’s Veteran Day Assembly speech will come back full circle with me.
