Family life

We, each and every one of us regardless of whether or not we have a disability are fully cognisant of the fact that life marches forward. There is a place for us in the order of restrained chaos that is ever present in the way we live day by day.
There are with most people set rules on how and what you do with your life, on how you interact with each other, not only in private but in the work force.
But those rules can be broken, at any time. A fit healthy person can find that overnight he or she has joined the ranks of an ever growing force where the prime requisite is that you become labelled with an illness of an ‘neurological’ nature.
I, along with many thousands around the world, have ‘signed up’ as it were. I now have the distinction of knowing that with my disability there is no way that I can resolve the quandary that I am in, so, I go forward in life, meeting along the way those who like me are looking for their place in not only a continuation of family life but being a person who can still be accepted in society.
The most important words in that last paragraph are ’family life’. To be able to function within the family is vital. To continue to be a father or mother, spouse or partner etc with this disability is not an easy road, a road made harder in that they ( the family ) know you will not be getting any better. To show a brave face is fine but if you want to cry, then cry. If you want to laugh hysterically then do so. It is all part and parcel of this condition that we have. It is the same with every other emotion we have, there is little or no control on what takes place within us. So let it all happen and people will understand.
Family. To be alone with this disease must be unbearable but made easier if there is someone in your life. Even when you become bed-bound to know that family are there for you, in one way or another and that to see people who care, be they adults or children, helps in some small way to enlighten your day.
It does not matter what colour of skin you have or what part of the world you live in. We all have family at some stage in our life’s and if you are lucky they are with you all the way on your journey.
Families are the mainstay of humanity. Without a family life we can become morose and not fit into society . We can and do make wrong life decisions and we all need someone to stand by us.
But with some families they are at a crossroad in the evolution of medical science . To accept unreservedly what is happening to loved ones and to know that there is still not enough known about this disease and with no cure in sight is not good enough.
The medical profession have come a long way in the last hundred years but with this particular disease they are still fighting the unknown, still trying to calm the fears of even those who live, day by day with this illness, who like me have accepted what we have and that families may or may not abide by the decisions made in their name by medical professionals in there quest for answers …
At what cost to families then to those living with this condition.. It has torn families apart with members not being allowed to see loved ones. To be turned away from someone you love because of whatever reason and to know that elsewhere in the world the reverse is also happening is hard to accept.
To be part of a family where the person afflicted is loved and shown that love unreservedly is the way it should be, but, we don’t all have that family affinity, the feeling that no matter what we all belong.
I am one of those lucky ones, someone with many family members, not only local but in different parts of the world who all understand what it is that I am going through and makes the rest of my journey so much easier to undertake.

Quote…Tomorrow is the most important thing in life…Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday.
John Wayne (1907 - 1979)