Uncle Levi

It's been a busy week or so for my Mom's family. A number of weeks ago, her brother Levi was in the hospital with an infection on his elbow (he's a quadriplegic). Then her brother Tim had a heart attack, which I blogged about. Well, Levi was readmitted to the hospital because the infection was still causing him problems. After further tests, it was found to have spread into his bone. Last Tuesday he was moved to the ICU and our family has been keeping vigil as he was having problems breathing and has been put on a respirator and feeding tube. On Saturday he also had emergency surgery, so it really has been quite the week.

I've only ever known uncle Levi as being in a wheelchair - he was in a semi-truck accident and became paralyzed when I was 7 months old. It's so interesting though, that what is normal and regular for a child may not be society's 'normal and regular'. In university, I was taking a professional development course about disabilities and we were asked to write down all the people in our life with various disabilities. So I marked down some down syndrome kids that went to school with me, but that was about it. When people in wheelchairs were being discussed, I thought to myself "I have never considered Levi disabled because he's in a wheelchair. (Trust me, he expresses his opinions quite well!)" Uncle Levi would not be uncle Levi if he was not in a wheelchair, causing trouble where ever he goes, cussing and getting more tattoos, and letting us all know his thoughts on every subject - that's just who he is and why I love him. Don't all families have a crazy tattooed uncle who rides around in a wheelchair?!?