Healing will come

The weekend was so pretty. The daffodils, early tulips and other bulbs are blooming, spreading sunshine. The early flowers like the grape hyacinths and crocuses are still hanging on making a cheerful display.

The colorful flowers didn’t give any hint that my brother, Michael, was going to end up in the hospital. Michael is the older of my two brothers. I have always loved his thick red hair, freckles, and heart of gold.

In family stories it is always Michael who is the main character. It was Michael who brought home the big snapping turtle and stuck it under the television. It was Michael who escaped the fenced in yard and walked a couple of miles so he could watch them building new houses. He was about 4 at the time if I recall correctly.

It was Michael who got his arm stuck in the wringer washer. It was Michael who they shoved out a window so he could shovel a path after the family got snowed in. And it was Michael who burned the barn down. That was an accident. He found a potbelly stove and set it up so he could use the milk barn as a shop. He left the stove on while he took a friend home. Embers landed on the roof and the barn went poof. The barn has been replaced by the guy who share cropped our land.

It is Michael who has the obsession with trains, both model trains and full-sized ones. He has quite a collection right now. He prefers things that make noise or need repaired. He loves thunderstorms as much as I do.

I always admired his sense of adventure. He wasn’t afraid of anything, or so I thought. He and his wife live within a mile or so of our brother, David. We don’t see each other as often since Mom died but between the phone and the laptop we keep in touch.

He has inherited the same fat genes that I have. Too much fast food and too little exercise combined with those genes have resulted in high blood pressure, among other things. It was the blood pressure that landed him in the hospital. They are still having problems getting it under control. I don’t want to give him my cough that seems to be coming back so we won’t visit him. Instead we push his wife for details that she doesn’t have.

One of the drawbacks to getting older is that our loved ones don’t stay the same. I still see a young man when I look at him, not a guy who has passed the half-century mark. The years take their toll on all of us. Eventually the body says, “Stop.” And if we don’t then we are given no choice. For Michael it was his blood pressure and until they can get that under control he will have to stay in the hospital  where he is safe. Until that happens, I will sit and worry about him in between phone calls. Prayers of healing will be said by his friends and loved ones. With a lot of luck and the right medicine Michael will be fine.