Okay — so this is sort of silly, I guess, but I need to ask a favor of all of you. Obviously, you don’t have to do this, and I have nothing against you whatsoever if you don’t, but it’d mean a lot to me if you took a minute or two of your time to participate.
For those of you that don’t know, my name is Jo — and my grandpa is in the hospital —(nursing home, now) and has been since December. He had a surgery at the time to correct an exposed nerve in his cheek that was causing him a lot of pain which involved going in under his brain to fix the nerve. Sadly, everything that could go wrong, did, and they found that the nerve was fused with one of his major arteries. When they moved to separate them, the artery was punctured, resulting in a small stroke. It’s been a long, grueling, emotionally trying recovery process and it’s taken us seven long months to get as far as we have. Infection after infection set him back, pneumonia, MRSA, a horrible bed sore on his back, a tracheotomy, breathing machines, ventilators, shunts, surgeries to reduce the swelling in his brain, numerous life flights to Pittsburgh, physical therapy to teach him how to speak again, how to swallow, how to sit up, how to stand, how to use his hands — this man has been through so much, and still he manages to smile every day and promise us he’s going to get better.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, tomorrow is his birthday — July 17th. He’s going to be 66 years old, and I want all of you to help me bring one more smile to his face. He’s always been a very social person, always willing to lend an ear to anyone whether they be stranger, friend, or family. He loves people. Now — here’s the plan:
I’m asking all of you to wish him a Happy Birthday. It doesn’t have to be a long message, you don’t have to be articulate, all it has to be is something short and sweet, along with yourname/nickname. I’m going to take all these wishes and write them all in a huge card and give it to him tomorrow — I’ll read every message to him individually, just to show how many people care and are supporting him in his recovery.
Drop into my ask, send it in a fanmail — all I ask is that you help me brighten up his special day with a kind word or two. It would mean the world to myself, and my grandpa as well.
If you’ve read this far — thank you. You’re all amazing, and I can’t stress enough how much this means to me.