“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory.“
Gen George S Patton
Alexander is eighteen years old today.
Let those words sink in for a minute.
You might need more than one so take your time…we’re not in a hurry here.
OK? Good!
It literally seems like a lifetime ago we were welcoming him into our world and being thankful that at least he’d made it to a more normal week for delivery than his older brother and without the complications that accompanied Nicholas being a bit premature and then being whisked off to ICU within minutes of being born.
We had no idea at the time that the idea of “normal” would never be the same for us again.
Alex would make his own way to the ICU once the doctors and nurses actually believed that Julia was seeing what she was seeing but his first stay there and in hospital would actually be shorter than Nick’s.
That is until he did the big U-turn about a week later and all of our lives was irrevocably changed in ways we’re still finding out even to this day.
From the two major brain surgeries to many years of rehabilitation and therapy and his journey in doing his level best to overcome his many challenges with a sense grace that none of us can ever hope to come close to proves every day what I’ve said about him from the beginning…he’s truly forgotten more about the concept of courage than I can ever hope to know.
And in spite of it all, he still has a generally pleasant disposition and loves everyone he comes in contact with for who they are, even the ones that have treated him less than kindly.
It’s as if the obstacles he’s faced with on a daily basis do not exist in his world.
He’s made such strides physically and in terms of language that we could have only dreamed of years ago. He can still be somewhat hard to understand particularly when you’re not in tune with whatever context he’s working with but with a bit of patience that has never been my strongest suit, he usually finds a way to get his point across.
He actually started school before Nicholas did thanks to the NC Early Intervention programme and he will be the last one to finally graduate in a couple of years and I’m sure that when that day comes, so many in the audience will know of him and likely have been charmed by him.
He wasn’t the “Mayor of Washington Elementary” for those many years for nothing!
He will likely never know what a “normal” adult life is like but there’s a part of me that’s actually glad of that. He looks past most of the darkness and evil we see in these modern times as if they are of little importance to how he goes through his day.
His sense of wonder and love combined with a remarkable equanimity and peace is such that I’ve only ever seen anything approaching that state of mind once before in my life.
I’m absolutely convinced that these things that I loved most about my Grandpa Williams lives on in Alex. Even though Grandpa had passed on many years before Alexander was even a dream that was made real 18 years ago today, I’ve no doubt Grandpa would have loved him as much as we do.
That’s the thing about Alex…no matter how hard you might try otherwise, you just can’t help but fall in love with those expressive blue eyes and that sense of innocence that permeates every aspect of his daily life.
I used to joke that his super power was that he could instantly turn women to mush. It turns out I was a bit wrong about that…he doesn’t confine that power to just women.
He’s held me captive all of these years and for whatever years may come for me.
Happy birthday and many happy returns of the day, Alex!
You are loved so much more than you may ever know. 🙂
Every day may well be a new challenge but that just makes every victory gained that much sweeter. May you never lose the courage you have in your heart and soul to continue to conquer every challenge placed in your way.