A Different Thanksgiving Celebration

My brother Benji on Thanksgiving. A belly full of turkey and stuffing ready for Day 1 of chemo.
The look of a determined individual ready to kick cancer's butt. He's my hero.

 

Thanksgiving this year wasn't the typical week long planning, prepping and cooking extravaganza or the fridge full of leftovers. It wasn't even a kitchen bursting with smells of all the yummy food about to be ravaged through or a stove and oven without room to spare. I still indulged in all the classic flavors of Thanksgiving; sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes with gravy, cornbread stuffing and of course the turkey, but instead these delights were served in a to go box and eaten together with my brother, future sister-in-law and father in a hospital room, which for all purposes had become my second home over the last month and my first being the housing provided to family at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. And while it wasn't traditional, it reinforced the meaning of Thanksgiving, of giving thanks and acknowledging the blessings in my life.

You see the reason that for this non-traditional Thanksgiving was because for the last month my brother has and is an inpatient at Brooke Army Medical Center after being medivac'd from Afghanistan back to the States after becoming extremely ill and needing several blood and platelet transfusions. As the sister of a soldier you prepare yourself for many things. You can expect the inevitable deployments to countries embroiled in war and the months that go by that you may not hear from your brother. The sinking feeling in your stomach never goes away when the mention of a soldier’s death or injury is mentioned on the nightly news, no matter how many tours of deployments your sibling has bravely set off for. So when I got the call from my dad that my brother was coming home from Afghanistan and arriving in San Antonio at the military hospital the next day my thoughts immediately went to an explosion or gunshot. What I wasn't prepared for was for my dad to tell me he had leukemia. Of all the challenges and dangers I worried about Benji facing, cancer was not one of them.

Thanksgiving dinner from the Brooke Army Medical Center (BAMC)
Grab n' Go Cafeteria

What I realized as I was eating my cafeteria turkey dinner that day was that no matter who cooked the Thanksgiving feast or where I was eating it, I was thankful that I was enjoying it with my little brother and family and I am truly blessed to have the opportunity to do so and to have been able to spend the last month at my brother's bedside to support him. Through the last month there has been challenge after challenge that he faced with great bravery and poise. A weakened immune system that left him vulnerable to infections, the comlexitity of his case and complications of the leukemia.

It was also a big deal in that Thanksgiving marked my brother's first session of chemo and while it may not seem like the best way to celebrate Thanksgiving we wouldn't have changed it because it marked the first day in my brother's battle to conquer leukemia. Seeing my brother's strength and constant smile and the way that my family has come together as one, I have never been so thankful for my amazing life and the people that are in. I am also thankful for the doctors and nurses that have taken such wonderful care of my brother and the military for their amazing support and systems in place. I now understand the meaning of giving thanks more so than ever before and see Thanksgiving as way more than new recipes and abundence of food.

Of course I do miss those next day leftovers, but there is always next year...

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