City: O’ Fallon

Brain Injury: Family (spouse) member of stroke survivor.

Explanation of Mask: My mask is about sadness. The impact on this brain aneurysm and stroke has brought a lot of sadness and stress to our family. For a 49-year-old man to have a stroke and aneurysm, it has taken everything he could do before, to me doing it all from him learning to walk, talk, write, print, read, dress and bath himself. And seeing him try so hard and struggling to do these things, it breaks my heart. This situation is a long process for a family member to understand and deal with but life is not over, just a long road ahead of us to live a new life. I’m learning to let go and to move on from the anger. It’s been one year to even feel this way. My hope is that my husband will make a full recovery to be able to take care of our daughter with down syndrome.