So I was just posting and realized how strong MY Mom must've been.

Growing up, my brother had an issue with drugs at an early age as well, in High school, he cut his finger off in shop, he was high, he picked up his finger, went to the teacher and then to the hospital. They couldn't save it. Then there was a time, I must've been 6, I walked into his room and he had the black lights and posters and he was playing his guitar so I went down to sing with him, I didn't knock, I walked in, I remember a spoon, a lighter and him yelling at me to get out, so I told my Mom, there was a big fight, I didn't know what was going on, then my Dad came home, I remember him chasing my brother around the kitchen table and they had a huge fist fight and my brother stormed out of the house. Then he came back the next day and I was at the bottom of the stairs, my mother was on the top step, my brother a couple of steps below her, they were fighting, I didn't know why, but he said bad words, then my mother pulled her arm back and punched him in the face and knocked backwards and he fell at my feet, I ran out to the back yard. Then I woke up the next morning and he was gone. I didn't get it, I was really young. I didn't see him again for about 4 years. He said he went to PA and lived with friends out there. He never moved back with us, and I very rarely saw him.

My mother never said anything, never cried or seemed mad about anything regarding him, nor did my Dad.

As I got older, I found out more, he was into all sorts of stupid crap. and now I wonder how my Mom raised the other three of us, never cried, never said another word, just moved on with her life as if nothing was wrong.

15 years went by, my brother got in a serious accident if FLA, he was in the hospital. I came in my Moms room, she was on the phone in tears, I took the phone, it was the Dr. he said he didn't know if my bro would make it, I told him he was a drug addict and had just gotten clean, then my father made plane reservations (which he NEVER did ever for all the trips we all took) and off we went. They had to amputate my brothers leg and he lost 11 pints of blood, he made it through, but now had to readjust his life. He had JUST gotten his act together and now this.....

So they did get their relationships back. He moved back here, got an apt for the disabled, went through rehab and amazingly he lives a fully productive life. He can do anything, it didn't slow him down at all.

He has a 42 foot boat he lives on in the summer and then winters with my sis in FLA during the winters. He doesn't have a 'home' he is a wanderer, still smokes pot, we call him the 'pirate'...LOL...he is a very simple person and loves his life. He will drive to FLA but has friends in EVERY state in between, alot are people with disabilities that he will visit, do jobs for them, he tiles, he is AWESOME at tiling and water reverse osmosis systems...and he does tiling and construction work for people. It's strange, but he likes it, he will take his truck and go into the swamps for relaxation from the 'world'..lol..he has a kayak that he will use too...he is not afraid of anything.

He had another accident, went to a lumber yard, and the dog they had was not on the leash, he had no idea and wasn't warned and the dog bit his testicle and they had to remove it....and if THAT wasn't enough he woke up one morning about 2 years ago to an awful pain in his eye and he lost his eye sight. So he calls himself the 'one legged, one balled, 9 finger, one eyed pirate'.....

How the HELL did my Mother keep her sanity. And this being said, is this a male trait in our family? My father NEVER did drugs, he was SO old fashioned never even SWORE! But my brother, one of my sisters two boys, and my other sisters kid, all into drugs and issues of that sort.....and then to boot my sons' birth father is bi-polar.....

I'm just thinking about her today, missing her and wondering how she ever did it!