Message from my friends:
Hi everyone! Let me
start out by saying Merry Christmas from Jim and me and may God
bless you throughout the new year! I want to thank all of you
for your thoughts and prayers throughout this long year!. I have
had so many calls and emails asking for updates on Jim that I
decided to write "OUR CHRISTMAS STORY" which is an update
on our journey through the last year. It is not meant to make
anyone sad or to feel sorry for us... it is instead to hopefully
show what we all can endure if we believe in GOD and if you ever
get to feel true love what you are willing to do...
Let's see, I believe the last time I wrote was about a year
ago when Jim got so sick at Christmas and ended up in a nursing
home that just about killed him! Since then, we got him moved
to a nursing home in Eustis fl. which is better than where he
was..not to say that it hasn't been without its up's and downs...like
the time....Jim got bit by a bug...I saw it the day after he got
bit, told the nurse....told the nurse....told the nurse...then
the nurse told me that it was a boil...(yep, real smart you know???)
that bug bite ended up being a spider bite , he got a staff infection,
ended up going to wound care to clear it up....horrible, horrible
scar now...to this day the same nurse still tells me " I
still think it was a boil"..there's your sign....
Jim no longer walks he is wheelchair bound ....tried the scooter
...you know the jazzy or hoverround..the motorized chair??? that
didn't work ...he almost ran down everyone in the nursing home....he
was told to park that...lol (I knew he would drive it that way..it's
the way he drove the car!)
I moved after setting the house on fire....just a little one!
I was trying to stay warm when the ac/heating unit went out...I
got me a 1 bedroom apt...I was bringing Jim home every sat and
sun for a while until I landed in the hospital with severe back
pain...learning now I have been eaten up with arthiritis all through
t-spine and lower back adding a pinched nerve into the equation.
I tell you this only to explain why I can't bring Jim home to
be with me. That has been my wish for the last year, that he could
come home and we could just go back to the way things were, but
that hasn't happened and I know and he knows that it won't happen.
That is the hardest thing to realize, is that I can no longer
care for him. This makes me sad and makes me feel that I have
let him down, but I know that it is the best for him and I pray
every night that I have done the right thing for him.
Jim's not doing to well these days, some days he doesn't speak
much, but I told him that's okay because I do enough for both
of us...and he just smiles...
He's been having TIA's (mini strokes) lately, this hasn't happened
for about six months and has just started again...Now, I can sit
and worry everyday or....I can enjoy each day no matter what we
have to go through...and I have decided that we only have today...there
is no guarantee for tomorrow...so I try not to get down or discouraged
because this could be our last moments together and I don't want
any regrets, I want to remember life..not death!
We were married for 11 years in June and renewed on vows in
June in a ceremony at the nursing home. I made the comment to
Jim that I would be there through sickness and in health till
death do us part and I will not leave his side until the lord
takes him or takes me first.
I have started this update on Dec 21st I plan on sending it
out on Christmas day with a picture of Jim and I on Christmas
day...enjoying what we still have....EACH OTHER.....I pray that
all of you have faith, and get to experience the love that Jim
and I have for each other because if you do....you can endure
anything!
Thank you for being there for us!
Love
Jim and Linda Sigears
Christmas Day ....2011
ps...WE MADE IT! 12/25/11