City: Miami

Brain Injury: My TBI occured on October 11, 1994; while I was driving and got hit on both sides by two cars; first by a person speeding who ran a stop sign, then my car was also hit by another car.  This caused my whole brain to shake and was in a coma for a long period of time.

Explanation of Mask: My mask is WHITE just like “white out” because my brain injury cause many memories to be erased and whited out.  I am a Mechanical Engineer who at the time held a high level management position but as a result of the accident things drastically changed.  My accident was a rainstorm, more like a thunderstorm followed by a RAINBOW as the sunshine came through overlapped by Medicine and Prayers from my family and friends.  Life is not all it’s expected to be.   My head cracked and my GOD is the living proof as He has a plan and since my part in that plan was not over yet, God performed a Miracle on me to keep me working on His plan, and He answered the prayers and medicine, the winning combination in my CAR accident.  Our journey is a WINDING ROAD with many curves or changes in our lives.  The big curve was a huge change that caused my brain injury and me to hold on tight, seat belt on and other devices to stay on track throughout all these years of daily therapy.  All these curves and changes led me to have pain and pain free reminders that bring out most of the emotions in the WORDSCRAMBLE.  Some of these emotions/feelings are new plus normal ones to boot.  Among these are frustration, overwhelmed, worry, awareness, which then causes withdrawal, anger, and fear to name a few as I recall things I was able to do but can’t do them anymore or need help.  Most people live there lives daily as planned or automatically.  Mine is not so automatic as I have to plan each step I take, following the day’s plan.  To keep life in balance we always have to be well centered, we have to have a GOAL that we are working on.  For me this is not an easy task, some are easy while others are harder and longer to achieve.  Since I have problems with memory, the best way to keep my goals is to check daily, write them down and most of the time rely on faith because I still forget, this is when I try to live one day at a time, better yet, one step at a time.  Sometimes the results are FACES of sad/disappointment since I simply forget what my goal was or it was just difficult to achieve.  Here is when my wife, family, support group come to help me achieve my goal and bring a smiley face, take a deep breath & most important always trust God.  Goal was accomplished.