This morning, I somehow came across a news article about Michael Schumacher’s wife selling his private jet and holiday home.  You may remember who Michael Schumacher is: a seven-time Formula One World Champion and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time. He also fell victim to a major brain injury in a freak skiing accident in December, 2013 and has been recovering very slowly ever since.

Even though it seems like comparing apples and oranges, the first thing I thought when reading the article was how I could potentially relate to his wife in selling the things he no longer had a use for. We sold Vernon’s car a few weeks ago, for example, though it had been waiting in the driveway for almost a year “just in case.” Ok, we aren’t at the private jet and holiday home level, but I can imagine this wealthy grieving woman and I would have a lot to talk about if we were to ever meet in person.  What a strange denominator.

Even with much better care than I could ever afford in this lifetime, her husband isn’t able to speak or walk yet. I keep hearing about brain injury patients who recover so much faster than Vernon and I have felt alone in his slow recovery. I remember meeting a young recovering victim last summer (one year after his own accident), who was overwhelmed by the social atmosphere of the party we were at, and had to hobble out of the room on his cane. Though he was proclaimed “a  miracle” he still struggled immensely…and I remember thinking: that won’t be us—Vernon will surely be better than that this time next year.  How wrong I was. Now I only wish Vernon was as healthy as that young man had been then. It feels years away.

That’s how it seems to be when you are watching a recovery.  You get sandwiched between those who are doing better and those who aren’t. Something feels immoral about this. I feel like I should only be watching the positive examples. But the truth is: there are days that can be disheartening…especially when things are moving along too slowly and you wonder if they will change.

My heart is with Corina Schumacher today. We don’t have to set up tents outside our house to keep the paparazzi from catching a picture of Vernon in a wheelchair. Money and success are great while they work for you, but at the end of the day… we are all humans who love our families and want to keep them with us as normally as we know how.

I just had to get that off my chest. It’s always something.

But for today’s news here: afternoon dialysis went pretty well. Better than it has in awhile actually. Vernon was pretty mild mannered for most of the afternoon session.  After the big Championship win, our friend Thom had bought him a Bournemouth Cherries scarf and had left it on our doorstep the other night. I brought it for him today for the visit. It must have been good luck as Vernon was calmer and sweeter than I had found him for some time. He was able to tolerate nearly two hours of sitting before getting fidgety.

We watched the Barcelona v  Bayern Munich football game together and I was able to even close my tired eyes on his pillow for a little bit. Win!

I think reading that article this morning actually helped me realize how far Vernon had come along. I had been thinking he was a worst-case scenario, compared to the other tbi stories I had been reading. But now I see…there is always someone who wishes they were where you are.