On Thursday, February
22nd, 2018 my uncle Leonard Patrick was rush to a nearby hospital right outside
of Assumption Parish. He was in dreaded pain all over his body and both my mama
and sister were in denial of his condition.
My younger brother
Louis called me and told me that our uncle have not been acting like himself
for days now. Our uncle couldn't stand on his feet or hold his balance. He had even
been having trouble going to the bathroom. Louis was unaware how much
trouble that he was truly having. My uncle was never verbal about his pain.
All my brother knew is that our uncle needed medical care and attention before
it was too late to act on the truth. The
truth was that our uncle Leonard was dying and battling with death with their
eyes wide open.
The first thing that
I immediately told my brother was to call Patricia (our sister who I haven't spoken to in almost a year.) I thought
that she would have felt the urge to stop whatever she could have been doing
and take our uncle to the hospital.
(Mind
you, I do not live close enough to my immediate family to step-in or have a car
to do what's right myself.)
Well, Louis did call
her and place the phone on 3-way (my line was mute.) He told her what was going
on with our uncle and she reacted nonchalant
about what she heard. Just from hearing her tone, I was on my muted line heated
like the Sierra desert, baby.
She told Louis that
she was out of the area due to work and
to just call 911. Without any hesitation she hung up. I resumed to telling
my brother to get our uncle together the best way that he can and to tune out our mama who clearly was still in denial of her brother’s condition.
Our mama was out of
it. She was still trying to play off the entire situation. Quite as
it’s kept she was and has been brainwash by Patricia. Patricia, being the same
one who signed over our uncle’s Social
Security check into her name from our auntie Beulah and filed him on her income taxes as her dependent. While in all actuality, she was/is behaving just
like our Auntie Beulah and was not doing the right thing with his Social
Security money especially since she was receiving it on his behalf.
To speed up the
story, once my uncle was admitted into the hospital the doctors quickly
discovered that he was in the final
stage of kidney failure which is called Renal disease.
The doctors and nurses decided that
he would be the admitted into the ICU to undergo a much stronger dialysis
treatment than he would have if he would have had the proper care earlier on in
life. He was a chronic alcoholic and illegal drug user for well over 40 years
and he's now in his early 60’s too.
Once my auntie broke
the news to her older brother and my uncle Louis, he broke down. All they ever
knew was each other since kids. Plus, even if my uncle Leonard makes a slight
recovery that he will not be returning to the house he been calling a home for
years. The state will be seizing his
Social Security check from my sister and placing Uncle Leonard into a nursing
home where he will continually receive his dialysis treatments and proper
treatment.
My auntie kept saying that everybody needs to pray.
Pray this way and
pray that way. I was on the phone listening to what she was saying and was just
shaking my head. Little does she know, prayer doesn't solve everything alone.
It starts with faith and ends with favor. Faith
without works is dead.
It's just sad that
there's folks that constantly push praying down people throats when they don't
truly have the most ideal relationship
with Christ themselves. If someone does not have the faith to see any
situation through, then why should they feel comfortable enough to turn
to God in prayer?
You cannot force any and everybody to pray
for you and your situation to turn around. What's already God's plan is in his
plan. No man can change what's already
meant to happen.
I'm not the ideal
young black Christian woman that many women claim that they are. I am
growing more each day within my walk with Him. I understand that for my prayers
to have an answer that it will take a lot more than just opening myself up
spiritually to Christ. I just cannot see tears coming from eyes about my uncle’s
condition either. He knew better,
but instead he settled for alcohol and illegal drugs to cope with his schizophrenia.
Now that he could be on his dying bed my auntie
pushing prayer down everybody's throats. When prayer will not reverse how
messed up her brother’s situation truly is. Prayer won't sugar coat the truth.
God has shown me how money hunger and manipulating my immediate family members can
truly be. I want no part of their pity
party. I want no part of the crying a river of tears for someone they did not help get help when he was
well enough to receive it.
I'm not spiteful. I'm
not angry. I'm not eager to sit beside them after all these years of feeding
outsiders bull crap about how truly messed up our immediate family truly is. I'm
thankful that God moved me away from their bitterness and small-minded thoughts
and ways.
I wanted to vent. I
did just that in this blog post. Judge me or the truth. All I know is that I'm
not going to ever fabricate my truth and life for anyone.
I found my inner
strength to speak out. This is one my outlets for self-expression. Prayer can only
change so much. Prayer can not reverse what has already happened.
Discover your inner strength every step of the way with
You are right, Faith without works is dead. Money is a source of great tension in a lot of households/families. Forgiveness is as well. When one is selfish or seeking to monopolize off another's well being, it can bring along some bitterness. Yes, this is your truth, but I hurt for you from the pain I feel coming from your post. I said all of this to say, moving away wont rid you of that. But working to forgive will. Things of this nature have happened in my family, but I worked to forgive, because I want to be forgiven too when I ask the Father in prayer. Even when it seems we are right and others are wrong, we still have to learn and practice forgiveness. That doesn't mean allowing others to continually hurt us. But it means forgiving, to release the negative effects it can have on our own souls.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for being transparent with me. I understand what you are saying as well. I'm going to continue to pray about this matter and give it to Christ.
DeleteOMG!!! I don't blame you. Can't even begin to tell the fakiness and thievery that's gone on in my family! Hypocrisy. Great article.
ReplyDeleteThank you! I could believe you too! So much goes on in many families and I'm blessed to be able to have the strength to talk about it and share it with the world. Thanks so much for reading too!
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