There’s No Bad Days For Ray
I have spent considerable time this week with a guy that I wish you all could meet. I am certain that each of you would be blown away by Ray. If for no other reason you would be as amazed as I was to discover that Ray has no bad days.
I should explain that I have spent this week in a rehab facility letting the experts tune my respiratory system back up. This recovery process was required after a week-long hospitalization for an infection in my legs. The inactivity of hospitalization is a killer for someone with my chronic lung problems. The rehab experts can expedite and simplify the recovery process and get me breathing again. ‘No Bad Days Ray’ is one of my fellow patients.
Time spent in a rehab environment also provides me a lot of stimulus. On a daily basis, hour after hour, I see folks who are fighting problems that are more serious and more crippling than my problems. I also can observe that everyone has their bad days and file that away for future reference and use for personal attitude adjustments. Well, everyone has bad days but Ray.
Mr. Johnson had a bad day yesterday. The 93-year old, recovering from a broken hip, is working with a therapist on learning to stand up from a wheelchair and transition to a walker without assistance. The day before he made the transition three times in a row successfully. Today he can’t coordinate the hand transitions and his frustration was evident. From across the room Ray motivated Mr. Johnson by gently kidding him about suffering from a hangover.
The sweet little old lady recovering from a stroke was having a bad day today also, Yesterday she could remember what state and city we were in, but today she needed Ray’s good natured assistance.
The fellow who is trying to steal his left side back from the ‘Stroke Monster’ enjoys Ray even more than the retired school teacher who lost her left leg to diabetes; She says Ray’s warmth reminds her of her deceased brother.
And Ray doesn’t even grunt and strain like the rest of us when he exerts himself during a rehab exercise. That big smile is plastered to his face like a beacon that is declaring, “There Ain’t No Bad Days!”
Ray had a really good day yesterday. He was notified that his prosthetic ear will be attached next Tuesday. Ray jokes that he now will have the body parts required to rejoin the sunglasses set.
Today was even a bigger, better day for Ray. Twice in a row he maneuvered from lying down on the bed to sitting in his wheelchair without a fumble. For those of you not familiar with the maneuver, that is no small feat for someone with no legs. A good day!
Based on current events today should have been a bad day for Ray – I mean that. But he says he will make the best of it. He says that tonight when he looks in the mirror he is not going to even notice the eye he is missing, just deeding it to the IED that already took it. Instead he is going to be proud of the fact that he can look himself in the eye. You see being able to look yourself in the eye without wavering is important to Ray. He doubts, as do I, that all those Congressmen who voted yesterday to reduce Ray’s (and all his brethren’s’) military disability payments can complete that simple task.
You see, There’s No Bad Days For Ray
Till Next Time
Larry Matthews
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