Happy go lucky Hannah--Michaela

I was born into a family of six people. I have an amazing mom and dad, an older brother, and two older sisters all of which I don’t know what I would do without. One of my sisters, Hannah, was born special needs. For the longest time doctors said that she had cerebral palsy which is a disorder that messes with someone’s ability to move around. Although that diagnosis didn’t quite make sense because of the many other problems she had that were not a part of cerebral palsy. Eventually, about four years ago, doctors gave her the new diagnosis of “chromosome anomaly” which basically means there is no one else like her and they don’t know what to do. She can not talk, she has many disorders from epilepsy to osteopenia, she can no longer walk on her own and despite some days where she has an attitude like everyone in my family, she is one of the happiest people you will ever meet.
Eleven years ago in September 2007 due to a Hamburger recall that got to my family a little too late my sister Hannah got E. coli. It began with her throwing up and my mom taking her to the hospital knowing something was wrong but the doctors sent her home twice saying “it’s just the flu.” As things worsened, her eyes turned yellow and my mom went back, the doctors finally listened. I remember thinking that this was just another one of Hannah’s doctor appointments that happen all the time, accept this one she didn’t come home from right away. My grandparents came to stay with me and my other siblings who were only eight and eleven at the time, that is when I realized that there was something wrong. My mom and my dad would

trade “night shifts” at the hospital with Hannah. I remember my mom always putting on this brave face like everything was going to be okay, even though we all kind of knew that it wasn’t okay at all. My mom and dad would always just tell us to pray. The first time we went to go see her me and my sister Aly gathered all of Hannah’s favorite toys, her most favorite being her balloons, and prepared for our task of going to make Hannah happy. Though, as soon as we walked in the room and saw our sister with an NG tube in her nose, IVs in and in a hospital gown asleep, we did not know what to do. However, we watched as when she woke up Hannah was still the happy go lucky girl we love so much and she began to mess around and play with her balloon like she always did. The next visit me and my sister prepared to go and again do our task of making Hannah happy. However this time Hannah was not quite as happy go lucky as we knew her to be. The next visit after that, the Hannah in the bed didn’t even seem like our sister anymore. She was always sleeping and if she was actually awake she was whining and not happy at all. Visiting Hannah went from a fun task of going to make that hospital room bright, to trying not to let that now very quiet hospital room get to you. At this point doctors told all of us to say our goodbyes.
At the time this happened I couldn’t comprehend what that even meant. I knew that it was bad and Hannah was sick and mom and dad were sad and I knew that Hannah might not make it but I couldn’t imagine that happening. I remember crying and not really knowing why, I just knew everyone else was crying and I knew Hannah was not okay. For some reason when she was sick and I was sad I felt the need to hide but my brother found me and would just hug me and say it’s going to be okay. The day after doctors told us to say our goodbyes, miraculously, Hannah started improving. Doctors could not explain what was happening and did not understand it at all, but as we learned a while after this, Hannah has a gift for stumping doctors. Happy go lucky Hannah makes a full recovery and is sent home. When she was home

people would come to see her. My parents one day were talking to one of our family friends about a prayer they prayed the night the doctors said to say our goodbyes. They both said they prayed and ask God either heal her now or take her to be with you because we can’t watch her suffer like this anymore. My mom was at the hospital that night and my dad was at home. They were in completely separate places praying the same thing. The day after this is when Hannah started improving.
This whole situation didn’t affect me as much in the moment as it does now. After this hospital stay Hannah has had way more and as I get older it becomes more and more real to me what could happen. This affects me now because I realize what all those little things I noticed when I was younger meant. My mom and dad being sad was because they thought they were going to lose their child, my mom saying pray was because doctors couldn’t even help at that point, and all those tubes that Hannah was connected to were literally keeping her alive, and all of this happened because of some burgers we wanted to try. This made the value of life real to me and it made the value of family real to me. Every time Hannah gets sick now I see how everyone takes kind of the same role as they did that first time. My mom and dad take care of Hannah, me and my sister try to make sure that everyone is happy and try to keep the mood light. My brother is there when someone starts to fall apart. It also taught me that no matter how dark and horrible things look they can turn around in the blink of an eye.