by SB, Sacramento
“Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” -Lord Byron
When they say, “Always laugh when you can,” it’s true because I have a cousin at the age of twelve who had surgery. He lost both his legs and all his fingers. He was depressed because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to do the stuff that he wanted to do.
Before the surgery, he was playing flag football. He didn’t like the fact that his friends were still having fun and he wasn’t. His friends stopped being friends with him for the fact he couldn’t do nothing. He would be in and out of the hospital and he had to take lots of meds. He hated taking meds every day, every hour, every minute. The only thing he had now was his family.
Fifteen years later they were telling my cousin he only had a couple years to live,
which started to make my cousin worry. But my cousin knew he had to enjoy himself. The doctors would say he wasn’t able to eat meat, drink, etc. Everything that he liked to do, he wasn’t able to do. So that’s what my cousin started to do. Everything he was told not to do by the doctors. His parents knew if he only had a couple years left they should just let him enjoy the rest of the years and that’s what put a smile on my cousin’s face.
He started drinking, eating meat, etc. He stopped taking mostly all his meds. His fingers and legs were recovered and he hadn’t gone to the doctors no more. Ever since he started eating meat, and drinking, the doctors had not said a word. They started to say his health was good and they stopped saying he had years left.
My cousin knew he had no fingers and no legs but he would always have a smile on his face. He didn’t care about his fingers and legs because he always had a smile on his face. Meanwhile, he is in a wheelchair living his life. He doesn’t care what people got to say about him. He be eating better than some of the handicapped people. He enjoys his life now with a big smile on his face every day.