I am sorry.

Our family went through a similar situation 30+ years ago when my mother (then 41 yo, with 6 kids) suffered a stroke that also left her paralyzed and unable to speak. She was in the hospital for more than five months--three of those months in Intensive Care--- and eventually underwent brain surgery.

I was 15 when this happened, but it was a period of time that I will always remember, a defining event in the history of my family.

We thought in the beginning that my mother might die. And even after the surgery, when she didn’t recover the way she was supposed to, the doctor told us we might have to think about putting her in a nursing home.

But...our story has a happy ending. My mother will be 73 this May. After years of physical therapy and speech therapy, she was able to walk again, though she never regained use of her right arm and her speech is still difficult to understand.

I hope for Jennifer and her family that their story will have a similarly happy ending. I know the odds are not in their favor, but---if there is any comfort in hearing about happy endings---please know that it can happen.