Mom Had a Stroke
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My name is Katie. I am 9 years old and in the 3rd grade. I live with my mom, dad, younger brother Alex, a dog and a cat. We live out in the country and I love to play outdoors, in the woods and especially in water. I want to tell you a story about my mom.
My mom was a fun mom. She took me places. We would shop for clothes together, and she'd play outside with me. We did all sorts of things together. She was really smart and taught high school. She was the best mom and I loved her so much. I never thought of anything bad happening to my mom. I was very happy.
One day, near the end of the school year when I was 6 and in kindergarten, my mom picked me up at the bus stop. When we got home, she let my brother and I play outside and enjoy the sunshine. Mom was going to clean out our car (we were very messy.). It was a normal afternoon.
While I was playing, I looked at my mom and and she didn't look right. She was slumped over in the driver's seat and sweating like she'd just run a race. I got scared because I knew something was wrong. I kept asking her, "Are you okay?" and she wouldn't answer me . By this time, my dad came home from work, looked at my mom and said we were all going to the hospital right away. Dad looked scared and I was too.
On the way to the hospital, my mom was twisting in weird positions with her arms and legs. She was moaning and crying. I remember her yelling, "This is it! I'm going to die!" I knew what death meant and I didn't want my mom to go away. I kept asking my dad, "What's happening?", but he was too busy trying to calm my mom down to answer me. My mom was scaring me and my brother and we didn't know what to do to help her.
When we got to the hospital, doctors and nurses met us at the car. They lifted my mom out of the car onto a bed with wheels then took her inside through some double doors. Then she was gone. My dad was gone too; he'd gone inside the hospital with my mom. Alex and I were left with my grandma. We felt so alone and tried to figure out what was going on. All I knew was they took my mom away and I had no idea what was happening to her or when I would see her again.
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About the Book
Katie, a six-year-old girl, loved her life. She had everything she needed: a house in the country with pets, a devoted family, and a fun-loving mom who would do anything for her. Katie had no worries.
But, unexpectedly near the end of her kindergarten school year, her mother suffered a life-altering stroke. Katie’s mom transitioned from a happy-go-lucky mom to one who lost her ability to walk and talk. For the first time in her life, Katie was really scared and worried what was going to happen to her mother.
Although Katie lost her old mom, she gained a new mom who turned out to be very different. Life was altered from what it once was, but it wasn’t so bad because through it all, Katie was lucky to have her mom.
A book for children, Mom Had a Stroke explores how one little girl felt as she learned to accept and adjust to a new mom with physical challenges, and how, over time, they began to experience happiness as a family again.
About the Author
Delanie L. Stephenson was a ninth-grade history teacher for eleven years. A stroke survivor since 2012, she lives in Wilsons, Virginia, with her husband, Curtis, and her two children, Katie and Alex. This is her second book.