Author Linda Chism
Carol M Mottershead
Book Two of 'The Elixir Chronicles' by Carol M Mottershead 'SHIPS IN THE NIGHT'
My mom, My hero
What woman has most affected your life?
March is Women’s History Month, and I couldn’t think of a better woman to honor than my own sweet mom. Hope you enjoy this story about her.
Life Without Moving
Mom sat doubled over on the couch in our living room, hardly able to breathe between violent spasms of coughing. Heeding her frantic cries, my father at last made the call for help. The doctor, recognizing how sick she was, ordered hospitalization to treat her pneumonia. But over the course of the next few days, a paralyzing numbness beset her lower body, working its way upward along her legs and torso. Doctors were mystified by her inability to move or feel below her neck. Almost overnight, my mother had become a helpless quadriplegic.
In spite of her immobility, Mom insisted on returning home. Family members provided her care – first her own sister from New Mexico, then my aged grandmother, and finally my sister, whose teenage marriage had lasted only a few months. Although I was only 12, I tried to help by caring for my 4-year-old brother, Bobby. But my heart was broken to see my mom, whose vitality and industry had always sustained our family, lying motionless in her own bed.
Many doctor visits followed, but no one could determine the cause of the paralysis. Eventually a neurologist pegged it as Guillain-Barre Syndrome, an almost unknown disease at the time. He knew little about the disease, other than it often manifested after a respiratory attack like the one my mother had experienced. The disease caused the victim’s own immune system to attack the nervous system, leaving weakness and numbness. In my mom’s case, the disease exhibited the most extreme form of symptoms.
Unable to resume any of her normal activities, Mom nevertheless tried to stay involved in the lives of her children. I remember vividly propping up my spelling bee practice book so that she could call out the words to me. She could always tell which words I had studied ahead of our sessions. I repaid her kindness by frequently placing my pet guinea pig next to her neck so that she could experience some measure of sensation.
Eventually a rehab unit in faraway Gonzalez, Texas had an opening for Mom. There an intensive, six-week exercise program helped Mom to regain some of her movement. She returned home for a few months before leaving again for another stint of rehab. During that second stay, her strength improved enough for her to hobble about on a walker. Mom continued to work hard after returning home, eventually graduating to a cane and then finally walking. However, the ability to lift her feet at the ankle was gone. For the rest of her life, Jo always moved in duck-like fashion, purposefully lifting each foot to take one step at a time.
Although Mom never regained her complete mobility, she led a full and fruitful life. She earned her own living after divorcing my dad. She was always the first to help and encourage family members. and learned through her own experience how to build or repair almost anything. She was, in the words of my husband, “the smartest woman I ever knew.”
In her later years, the effects of the disease caused her to often lose her balance and fall. At 65, a slip on some ice in Idaho left her with pins and screws along the full length of her left leg. Seven years later a misstep in a parking lot broke several bones in her right leg. Finally, in 2004, she tripped over a vacuum cleaner cord in her own home, resulting in a broken hip that contributed to her death at only 75 years of age.
Mom’s life was far from easy, and her bout of Guillain-Barre Syndrome was only one chapter in a book filled with trial and tragedies. But though all of it, her courage and zeal for life propelled her forward. Her can-do attitude still stands as inspiration for taking on whatever challenge life throws at my way and finding a way to triumph over it.
Until next month,
Linda
P.S. If you haven’t yet read my first series, now is the perfect time to do so. I have just released my Emma Peterson inspirational trilogy as an Amazon ebook. The trilogy is available for $9.99, a 23% discount on the individual prices for all three ebooks. Of course, if you are a KDP reader, you can read the book for free.
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And while you are moseying around Amazon, check out these books by historical fiction writers S. R. Mallery and Gifford McShane.
An inspirational western trilogyThe Emma Peterson Saga
Orphaned in Missouri. Abandoned in Utah. Branded a traitor in California. That Gentile Girl – Left the sole survivor of a killing spree, Emma Peterson sets off for a new life far from her family’s Missouri farm. But her dangerous journey westward brings her directly into the path of three dangerous predators. Discovering the last of the murderers on a wagon train bound for California, she concocts an elaborate plan for revenge. But will her vengeful scheme cost the young girl the ultimate price? A Test of Faith – Left to fend for herself and the three young children whose lives depend on her, Emma battles voracious grasshoppers, starvation, and renegade Indians in frontier Utah. But when her husband returns far different from the man who left, the young bride is left with an uncertain future. Can she once again find her own way against the backdrop of Utah’s darkest days? San Bernardino Bound – Hoping for a better life, Emma and her children move west to California. Quickly embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder, Emma is given the choice between her love for a smooth-talking Southerner and keeping herself off the gallows. But spying for both sides at the cusp of the American Civil War could cost Emma her own life in the bargain. Can the young mother survive the consequences of her choices? Love a tale of courage and resilience against all the dangers of the Wild West? Buy The Emma Peterson trilogy today to follow one young woman’s inspiring journey of hope and redemption.
Winner of the Reader’s Favorite Gold Medal! A True American Family Saga
Can we learn from our ancestors? Do our relatives’ behaviors help shape our own?
In "Unexpected Gifts" that is precisely what happens to Sonia, a confused college student, heading for addictions and forever choosing the wrong man. Searching for answers, she begins to read her family’s diaries and journals from America’s past: the Vietnam War, Woodstock, and Timothy Leary era; Tupperware parties, McCarthyism, and Black Power; the Great Depression, dance marathons, and Eleanor Roosevelt; the immigrant experience and the Suffragists.
Digging Into Her Family’s Past Will Save Her Future
Back and forth the book journeys, linking yesteryear with modern life until finally, by understanding her ancestors' hardships and faults, she gains enough clarity to make some right choices.
In this unforgettable tale S.R. Mallery takes the reader on an epic journey through the 20th century’s most iconic periods.
An outcast Society belle falls in love with a Navajo man—can they defeat the woman who's driven to destroy their happiness?
After falling from grace with her family in Philadelphia, Alicia Beaufort is shunted off to relatives in the Arizona Territory. Disturbed at first by the things she hears about the West, she gradually comes to realize the village of White's Station has what she's always longed for: simplicity and peace.
But when Alicia begins to keep company with a Navajo man, she learns that all is not quite as it appears. She finds herself in conflict with the very people who are supposed to be looking after her. And when the man who ruined her shows up, she's terrified that her past will become known and the villagers will turn against her.
With her family against her and past transgressions looming, Alicia knows she has to fight for what she wants, but she has no experience to draw on. Can she take a stand against her family and former lover? Or will her dreams all come to naught?
WITHOUT THE THUNDER is multicultural adult Historical Romance set in the Old West. Although it shares characters with the other books in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. Fans of the "Sky's West" novels by Richard S. Wheeler and the "Redemption Mountain" series by Shirleen Davies are sure to enjoy WITHOUT THE THUNDER.
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9moCarol M Mottershead "Wow, this post really got me thinking! Thanks for sharing such insightful content."