Being a student @ Kaplan has meant the world to me. I am so proud of myself, I cannot stand it. It has given me pride in myself where there has not been any for a long time. I feel normal and whole and I can communicate with anyone, without closing my eyes. You see, four years ago, after my husband had been in a nursing home for six years, I changed my downstairs dining room into a bedroom for me, and I did not know you are suppose to put some special screws in the wall when you hang shelves, and I put nails in. I put all my religious ceramic statues that my Dad made for me,on the shelves.It was five in the morning, and the kids said it sounded like an explosion, and when they came in my room, I was on the floor with all the shelves and broken statues on my head. I was a week in the hospital in a comma, but it was one of the best weeks of my life. I spent it with my daughter who's children I have been raising for thirteen years, and my Mother who died a year earlier in my arms. They were together and so very happy. We laughed and were so happy together, and as quick as they came, they were gone, and I woke up in the hospital unable to talk, read or walk. I had a right frontal lobe brain injury, with bleeding into the left side of my brain ,that caused a stroke. I was able to communicate through singing only with my eyes closed, so I could find the words to sing. I could not walk, and unable to read. After months in the hospital I started to communicate, but most things and people were new to me. They would not let me go home, and they were going to take my boys (grandsons) away, and put me in a nursing home, because I needed 24 hour care. My twenty year old son came home, giving up his college in Boston, and his apartment to take care of the boys and I. I could not get in and out of bed, and wash myself, so I had nursing care for everything, and therapists to help bring me back. My husband passed away two and a half years ago, and as for me, no one knows I ever had a stroke, except when I get tired my left eye droops. The picture in my blog space was taken about six months ago. I can talk and communicate with anyone, and I walk with no cane, walker, or wheel chair, they are all put away. To be on the President's list is a true honor for me, and sometimes I sit here and cry just to be considered a good student. When one of my classmates responds to me, I feel very proud. This is my fourth semester at Kaplan, and when I graduate, which I will, and am going to walk with my class. Kaplan has also brought back a lot of words that were lost to me, so as you see, I have a lot to be thankful for and I thank God every day for the wonderful people he has brought into my life. Barbs
I truly thank you all.