Nony Godwin sent me the following message.  Perhaps you have
received it in an email.  Whatever your history with it might be,
please read it and act on your knowledge.  Ironically, several
years ago, Lorena was on the phone with one of my aunts even as my aunt
suffered a stroke.  My aunt, working alone at her office, 
was slurring her words and was verging on incoherence.  We called
my uncle who went to the office and found her down, whereupon he called
for an ambulance.  My aunt has regained her independence, but she
is nowhere close to being the brilliant, active woman she was.  I
have often wondered how things might have turned out differently had we
called 911 immediately upon observing the symptoms.  However, at
the time, stroke was the farthest thing from our minds; it was
something that happened to other families and other people. 
Little did we know…  Anyway, please read this and use it. 
The possibility of being mistaken and “offending” someone is far
outweighed by the chance that you might save someone’s quality of life,
which, in this case, is of more importance than saving the life itself.

                                          
  STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During
a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall.  She assured
everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and had
just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her
cleaned up and got her a new plate of food.  She appeared a bit
shaken up, but Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the
evening. Ingrid’s husband called later telling everyone that his wife
had been taken to the hospital.  At 6:00pm, Ingrid passed
away.  She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to
identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today.
Some don’t die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.
It
only takes a minute to read this…

A
neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can
totally reverse the effects of a stroke…totally. He said the trick was getting
a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for
within 3 hours, which is tough.
                                             
RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank
God for the sense to remember the “3″ steps, STR . Read and Learn!

Sometimes
symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of
awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when
people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke
Now
doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple
questions:

                  
S
*       Ask
the individual to SMILE. 
                  
T *        Ask
the person to TALK to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE   (Coherently) (i.e. . . It is sunny out today.)

                  
R
*        Ask
him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

   
NOTE
: Another ‘sign’ of a stroke is this: Ask the
person to ‘stick’ out their

                
tongue. If the tongue is ‘crooked’, if it goes to one side or the other

                 
that is also an indication of a stroke. 
If
he or she has trouble with

                 
ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately !! and describe the

                 
symptoms to the dispatcher.

The statement that a neurologist can totally reverse the effects of
a stroke completely if able to treat the patient within three hours is
at best hyperbole and at worst an outright lie.  That depends
entirely on the type of stroke.  I witnessed Lorena’s stroke, and
we called 911 immediately.  She was having medical care with a few
minutes and was in a major trauma center within an hour after having
been CareFlited to Fort Worth.  Even so, her neurologists were
amazed that she had even survived that long, and they held out
absolutely no hope of reversing the stroke.  In fact, they saw her
survival to be miraculous.  Many stroke victims could be saved,
however, with prompt medical attention.  No one should have to go
through this hell.

Answers to
prayer:

~ The Lord
continues to bless my friendship with Reaiah; we get along so well and keep
each other laughing all the time

~ we have spent a
lot more time with the women in our compound and our relationships with them
are growing slowly as our language progresses

~ our family is
beginning to see that we aren’t like the Americans they have seen in movies or
heard about; we have had several chances to talk to friends about God, prayer,
and modesty

~I’m developing a
taste for rice three times a day and don’t even mind the slime so much anymore

             ******

Continue to
pray for…

~ language
learning and more friends to talk with

~ our
relationship with our village family: that we will be a blessing to them as
they have generously taken us in and that we will show them with our lives that
we serve and honor God

~ our
relationship with God while in the village: that we will be listening for all
He wants to show us

For those of you who have followed the adventures of my ex-student K in Africa, I need to do some updating:

Michael in Stephenville.  I had a wonderful telephone call from Lorena last night with her nurse Roberto as the moderator.  [He is GREAT!]  She had spelled out a whole list of things, some of which were wonderful, some of which were mundane “honey do’s”, and some of which excoriated me.  All of them were great, though, because she was COMMUNICATING with me.  It is so incredibly disheartening to almost always talk AT her and almost never WITH her, guessing that she really understands the gist of what we are saying, never receiving any more explanation or elucidation beyond “uh-huh” and “uh-uh” [and all too often not clearly able to understand just which of those is her intended response, never able to comfort her when she cries, and never able to ascertain exactly why she is crying when she cries — or why she sometimes laughs inappropriately to what we say?  (Did she understand?  Was the laughter sardonic?  Does she actually see something humorous in it?)  It is so indescribably wonderful to have her actually communicate with us.

We are supposed to call back again tonight.  Some of her most spectacular is that the therapy table has arrived from England, and the therapists are now standing her up.  That is so fantastic.  She is making incredible advances.  Thank God.

Dena, who had received the forward from Melanie, sent me the following email that I think might well serve a purpose on here.  She is a computer tech, so she loved it.  I am a computer idiot, but I like it as well.  Sorry I cannot credit it to its creator:

 Installing Love  
 
Tech Support:  Yes, … how can I help you?

Customer:         Well, after much consideration, I’ve decided to install Love. Can you guide me through the process?

Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer:        Well, I’m not very technical, but I think I’m ready. What do I do first?

Tech Support:  The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer:        Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?

Tech Support: What programs are running ?

Customer:        Let’s see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-Esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.

Tech Support:   No problem, Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer   disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-Esteem with a module of its own called High Self-Esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Can you turn those off ?

Customer:        I don’t know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?

Tech Support: With pleasure. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer:        Okay, done! Love has started installing itself. Is that normal?

Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. You need to begin connecting to other Hearts in order to get the upgrades.

Customer:     &nbs p;  Oops! I have an error message already. It says, “Error – Program runs on external components.”  What should I do?  

Tech Support:  Don’t worry. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer:        So, what should I do?

Tech Support: Pull down Self-Acceptance; then click on the following files:   Forgive-Self; Realize Your Worth; and Acknowledge your Limitations.

Customer:        Okay, done.

Tech Support:  Now, copy them to the “My Heart” directory. The system will   overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also, you need to delete Verbose Self-Criticism from all directories and empty your Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer:        Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?

Tech Support:  Sometimes. For others it takes awhile, but eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So Love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to give it and its various modules to everyone you meet They will in turn share it with others and return some cool   modules back to you.

Customer:      Thank you God.

We are home again, and I am fighting the doldrums.  We called
Lorena last night and talked to her.  She sounded well, but
there was no active moderator, so our “conversation” was very
one-sided.  And very sad.

Today is our 22nd U.S. anniversary.  (I was in at Lake
Catherine outside Hot Springs for our Mexican anniversary.)  It is
so difficult not to be able to converse in any true sense
with Lorena, and this is compounded by the inability to
really be able to confide in her, but I miss her terribly.  The
vacation was good as far as getting away from here for awhile was
concerned, but it really reinforced how much I miss Lorena because I
wanted to share everywhere I went and all I saw and experienced with
her.  That made coming back home very difficult.

This is the first time in over ten years that I have not gone to
Mexico for at least part of the summer, and I miss those folks as
well.  Rafael and Chris were so instrumental in our marriage (and
it is ALL Chris’s fault!!!) and I miss them dearly.  [Ben is in
California, so it seems that that contact is completely missing --
and I feel very guilty because it seems that I never see Ben when he is
here.]  Susan and Alfonso have provided guidance, a home away
from home, and seventy-five thousand meals for the
girls.  Margarita and Roberto have also provided us with
lodging many times, and this summer seems empty without them. 
Alma and Ernesto, Jorge and Chela, Angie and Rick, Ramón and Linda (who
provided me some invaluable insights to life in Tepic and the Aguilars
early on.)  I miss them all, but part of me died on March 9, 2004.

On July 21, 1984, though, Lorena and I were “legally”
married at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Holder, Texas,
[after having been illegally married in La Iglesia del
Sagrada Corazón by an unorthodox priest in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, on
July 7.]  We spent the night at Jerome and Ruth Smith’s house at
Holder.  Prissy McBride sang at the ceremony with the rite of
marriage administered by Rev. Everett Yeilding — who would later hold
the funeral services for both my grandmother’s, George Boyd, both my
parents, my sister Jane, and far too many other friends and relatives
before he, in his turn, joined them.  My memories of this day
are so incredibly bittersweet, and so much has changed since then.

The service was especially remarkable in that the ceremonial
highlight featured me trying to put the wedding ring on the wrong
finger until Lorena corrected me in a highly-accented stage
whisper that tickled the witnesses.  The post ceremonial
highlights occurred when little sister Gina (who was truly a LITTLE
sister then) ran up to tell Lorena something — and inadvertently
spilled her glass of red Kool-aid down the front of Lorena’s
newly-cleaned wedding gown.  (Remember that, Gina???)

Last night I told Lorena I know it hasn’t been a happy anniversary
for me (and I am sure not for her), but I wished her one,
nonetheless.  If I had it to do all over again, I would, but with
some major changes.  I would spend more time with her and less
time with school work and with “busywork” around the house.  I
would do things, go places, and see things with her instead of planning
to do that “someday” when she graduated and we had more money.  I
would do everything I could to make her life as easy as possible. 
And I feel so guilty because I didn’t do that when I had the
chance.  I would marry her again, though, in a heartbeat.  I
love you, and I miss you, Lorena. 

This weekend is going to be difficult, as well.  It had looked
as if there was not to be a Smith Reunion this year because of Dena’s
illness, but Ruth and Jerome scrambled to organize one, so I will be
out of pocket again the next couple of days, renewing acquaintances
down in Llano, Texas.  Part of me is extremely excited about the
prospect of getting to see the folks who will be there this weekend,
but part of me is just depressed because my “family” won’t be
there.  Lya is going down with Steve and Julie.  Stephi and I
will probably go down with Dena and her family. 

Anyway, thank you so much for your cards, letters, and emails.  Lorena continues to improve.  We love you.

Michael and the locas in the public library in Bluffton, South Carolina (@ $2.00 per hour Internet access.)  Folks, I am so sorry to have been out of touch, but I will fill you in with details later.  Suffice it to say that Dena, my sister, had a couple of vacation sites booked and asked the girls and me to accompany her. 

First, I had to drive a friend’s rental car to Michigan, so we left whenever it was (I have lost all track of time), drove 24 hours to Michigan, then turned around a drove back.  That took me through Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Arkansas.  Then we loaded up and drove up to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where we spent a week in a condo Dena had rented on Lake Catherine in the Ouachita Mountains.  From there we drove through Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina to Hilton Head where Dena had rented a condo.  We have spent the last week there, half of that with little sis Gina (Fyestygoat) and Brad who drove down from Roanoke, Virginia, to meet us.  We have now started the return trip to Texas.

The trip has been great.  I had not realized how isolated I had become, living desperately from moment to moment and missing out on much of my life with the girls.  I miss Lorena and the folks in Mexico, but for the last three years all our “vacations” have been down there visiting Lorena — and those are not vacations.  We would spend, at the most, part of one day at the beach.  The rest of the time we would be visiting with Lorena when we could.  Other than that, we would be waiting while Lorena was in therapy or was being fed or was being bathed or whatever.  The trips were really tough on all of us, so it has been great to really get away and to relax.

Rainy has been tasked with calling Mom and reporting on here, but it looks as if that has fallen through the cracks.  I will fill you in on our adventures later (as soon as I can), but I wanted to let you know that we are all well — and much better.  We love you.