Take off your hat, I want to stand up.

Chapter 47: Life is like that Sometimes.

Chapter 47: Life is like that sometimes.

Every Spring.

The buds burst forth in a natural display of kindness, a sweeping testament to renewed hope. Farmers smell the earth, children play in puddles, puppies romp after anything that moves, robins hop, crows caw, the sun shines bolder. The 747 jet that packaged Ev home to Canada had a melancholy feel. There were seven seats bought by my mom. She needed to have her body flat across the up right seats while she lay on a flat gurney. Her head strapped in place, she could only stare straight up. She was afraid so we hired In two nurses and a medical emergency Doctor. The fare was unbelievable, it was a crushing expense the family bore the responsibility and the expense.

The cost of creating a life worth living for a dependent quadriplegic is mind blowing it certainly was not within our realm of understanding. We just kept trying to pay the bills when they were presented. We suffered in silence, more for the loss of our mom than anything tangible.

As I came to understand the scope of the circumstance I asked Ev if we should sue the state of Hawaii for damages, loss and suffering. I was fairly certain there was a direct cause and effect relationship between her going on a holiday whole and complete and returning in her current drastic condition. She said no. She strongly believed it was an accident, no one was to blame. If anything, it was own fault, she should not have been swimming in unknown waters.

I found this line of reasoning to be fantastic in its simplest form. Yet it is profound. She could not live with blaming others, it was not her way.

It makes you wonder, every once in awhile I hear of a case that is fantastic in it's own right. Take this example, a drunk passenger was joy riding in the backroad country with his red-neck friend. He was even more inebriated. He was the driver of the speeding half ton Chevy truck. The vehicle was out of control most of the time. They were careening up and down the country roads they knew so well. Did they slow down?

Didn't they go faster, took more risks until there bill came due and the entire unit flipped at a turn in the hook of the dirt road. The truck pirouetted, spun, end to end and side to side, the speed was not exhausted until the half ton ground to a halt ploughing a furrow in the farmer's field.

The driver was not wearing a seat belt and was spun out of the cab dieing the instant the Chev crashed down on him, he was flattened, crushed beyond recognition. The crazy rebel in the passengers seat was not wearing a seat belt either. As it happened when the Chev did a dance on its front bonnet piercing the ground at a ninety degree angle the body of the man flew head long through the front wind screen, crushing his neck, because it pinned him it saved his soul, he lived.

Now in a state of total dependence, he was a quad. He had no movement from his neck down. He finds a lawyer, sues the township for two million dollars and wins, why? The case rested on the fact the country backroad had no turn sign at the lead into the hill. No sign, really? The fact he was breaking several laws at the same time did not come into play. The fact he was responsible for his own actions did not come into play. Rather, there was no sign. As a result the tax payers had to poney up for the bill. Further to the point, the county now must pay for new signage to be placed in the country-side to indicate there are hills and turns on country roads.

Another good one is even more mystifying in my personal opinion, a lady successfully sued a national chain restaurant for spilling hot coffee on herself, while she was driving her vehicle on rough city roads. She won. After which point all coffee cups are printed with a warning, hot coffee do not spill on your own self. This amazes me.

One last one, a women in the States, wins seventy- million dollars plus. She sued a well known international branded company because she applied baby powder to her private area for thirty-two years. She developed cancer, she reasoned it was because of this product. In the companies defence, people just get cancer, it kills a large number of people, we sometimes do not know why we get cancer. We are just getting way better at finding cancer in our bodies. It makes me think how? It just makes me shake my head and say really people, really. We need temperance and reason at some point in time.

Ev took responsibility for herself, she was my super hero. I went to her home before she returned and cleaned out the fridge and cupboards of all the consumables she would never use. I knew she would never, ever step foot back into her own home, sleep in her own bed, make her own lunch, reality dictated an end to her former self.

Every spring I look at the crisp green of the laughing crocus flowers and smile with my mom. I know Ev, I remember who you were, I am one with you. Every spring I remember you. Today I will remember you.

Now you are going to Las Vegas. She would be living large in the city of endless dreams.