More thankfulness....

She wore a  black wig and was my worst nightmare. I feared Rabbi Black's wife with every inch of myself. I was the rebellious one, the one that may have been the cause of her stress lines. For the life of me I can't remember if she was my teacher or just the unlucky one assigned to tend to Tova  (my Hebrew name) aka Jessica.  My years at Talmud Torah taught me little of Hebrew as I payed little attention rather they were times of safety and feelings of love and security. I needed those folks and am so thankful for this part of my story.

Massive in size and sound he wordlessly imparted terror into me. Drill Sgt Sledge appeared to the meanest and scariest human ever created and he was all mine. Crap! With his every command my stupidity increased as I without fail replied with a question as to why he wished for me to do such pointless duties. His creative punishment and patience he had with me actually broke through my thick skull. I learned from this massive and mighty man about responsibility and perseverance. He added lessons of humor as he would would eat my Oreos sent from home while I did push ups in front of my entire platoon. Thankful for this man and his lessons. 

The procedures and surgeries went well into the double digits when I simply could't take it anymore. Dr P was a long shot at a second opinion but hey why not? Permanent marker was used to make the line above my wrist, the line marking where the amputation would go up to. Waking up fighting the fog I reached for my missing hand.  Thinking the drugs were playing a trick on my mind I let myself drift off to sleep. Again waking and feeling for the lack of my hand I still found something there. I had half of a hand! Dr P explained how and why but my joy filled ears only held onto the words "we were able to save half of your hand". Thank God!

Thanksgiving day is wrapping up around the Neal house but I plan to continue sharing my moments of gratitude and catching up on my overdue thank you's.