Around the time of my senior year in high school, my mother learned she had a brain tumor. She and my father traveled to New Orleans, Louisiana where she had surgery on a one-for-the-medical-journal's tumor, followed by a summer of radiation therapy and later by a second surgery. A final surgery, performed with the hopes of saving some of her failing eyesight, left her blind for the remaining years of her life. She had finally become a stay-at-home mom but at great cost. The surgeries had taken their toll on her brain as well as her sight and her sense of taste. My family suffered much distress as our wonderful mother was no longer able to be the mainstay of our family. My brother and sisters suffered far more than I as I was in college at the time.
This time during the life of my family became a sad, dark time, during which my Dad, suffering from emotional/mental stress and various health problems lacked the ability to be strong for my mom and the other children. The family splintered into pieces. I had benefited from a family life that for my brother and sisters became very different and very difficult. They suffered through days of darkness as my Dad plunged into deep depression with breakdowns, ravings, and resulting dismissals from churches he tried to serve. Neither my mom nor my dad were able to take the reins of the family to lead and nurture my siblings and in the more formative years of their lives, they experienced many troubling things.