This is but one of many blog postings, I’m sure, that will
help me process what happened to my family in June 2013…more is to come,
especially as I pray and ponder on God’s presence within it all.
June 5th of this year will be a significant marker in the
lives of the Bunn family. It was on that horrific day that my wife had a
hemorrhagic stroke. That day defined as much of my understanding of what the
word SURREAL means in that it was like becoming a spectator to the routines and
rituals I took for granted. And yet it was like any other day at our house. The
morning Bunn routines were the same as always—the kids getting up to find bowls
and spoons to begin the ceremony of cereal selection, and I dutifully started
the coffee maker as I rummaged through the cabinets looking for the cleanest
coffee mug (our dishwasher didn’t always clean those little nooks and crannies). And as my teenage daughter carried away the
family’s newest addition for a brisk diaper change and bottle prep, we all
heard the startling crash from upstairs that fractured any semblance of
“normal” in which we were accustomed to.
In an attempt to get her medications from the dresser
drawer, my wife fell off our bed because the left side of her body was
completely paralyzed. Little did we know what had happened as the kids and I
ran up the stairs to investigate—all the while in stride shouting, “Mom! Mom!
What happened?! Are you okay?!” When we got to the room, we heard muffled tones
from the figure lying next to the bed. When I saw my wife on the floor, I just knew
in my heart of hearts she suffered a stroke. And sure enough when we got to the
emergency room, the doctors confirmed what I already knew to be true…thus the
nightmare began; for it wouldn’t be until four weeks later that the children
and I would hear her voice again.
June 5th also marked a bizarre take on my
understanding of spirituality as a shared lived experience. In other words, I
was trained in seminary to conceptualize a spirituality that included an
encounter between the infinite and the finite as well as a similar relationship
among finite creatures—an attempt to harmonize a Christian spirituality that
embodies the divine within the earthiness of what it means to be human. But at the end of that day, I looked to the
heavens and muttered in my best Georgian accent, “You gotta be kiddin’ me?”
