To Warren, with all my love... Kim

Today, my cousin Warren passed away. He was 24 years old.

As you may have read in my previous post, I have been going to PA for the past two weekends going to see my cousin who was in an accident. Him and four of his friends were in PA, coming back from Dorney Park. They were driving along a highway, and another car tried to come in their lane. The driver of the car that my cousin was in swerved, to avoid an accident, but the road was slick due to a recent rain. They skid, hit the curb and the car flipped, a few times. Everyone was ejected from the car, except the driver, who was wearing his seat belt. When the car stopped flipping, it landed on my cousin. he was able to pull himself from under the car, but sustained a fractured skull; but no broken bones.

He was taken to a nearby hospital, St. Luke's in Bethlehem, PA. When he arrived, he was alert, and able to tell the doctor's everything that happened. He stayed awake until his mother and stpefather arrived from Brooklyn, NY, about a two hour drive. Once his mom arrived, he told her what happened, and the doctors induced a coma. The coma would help minimize the swelling in his brain. He also had to have a piece of his skull removed to accomodate for the swelling.

The next week, I was live in Bethlehem, PA, checking on my cousin. he didn't look like the normal Warren, tall and slim. This one looked so big and swollen, but his mom said he looked better than he did. I wanted to burst out crying, but since I could tell that his mom wasn't doing so well, I remained strong for her. She needed it. My heart hurt so bad for her. What do you say to a mother who may loose her son, her only child?

I stayed for about 5 hours, mostly in the waiting room, but I knew that just my presence helped my Aunt, and anyway I could be there, anything I could do, I would. I spoke to my Aunt before I left, letting her know that I would be back the following weekend to show my support.

The next weekend, my mother, sister and cousin went to see him. He also had a lot of other visitors; the guy who was driving the car (Ray), and another one of the passengers. Everything looked promising. There were signs during the week that my cousin was waking up; yawning, moving his legs and arms, fluttering his eyes. Saturday, he actually opened his eyes, looking at everyone, following them around the room. We stayed a long time, for about 8 hours. Took my aunt to eat, and spent some quality time with her and her husband.

Sunday, my Aunt said Warren was fully awake, responding with head nods to the nurses questions. YEAH!!! He's coming back, making a wonderful recovery. I made my plans to take yet another trip down over to Bethlehem, PA to see my cousin this weekend. Warren, here I come.

Today my mom calls and said when I go, to spend some time with my Aunt, talking to her, about hows she's feeling. She was optimistic about his recovery on Saturday, although she didn't want to show it, but now she has questions. Why is this happeneing to her son? What did he ever do to anybody? Valid questions that any mother would ask. Me, being the understanding person I am, understood exactly. Try to comfort her as much as possible, talk about her feelings. Not a problem.

Later today, I get a message from my mom to call her. I called and that's when she told me. It's so unexpected, so sudden. Why now? Why Warren? I thought he was getting better, what happened? I cried so hard, and for so long, that I have the worst headache. And everytime I think about it, or even try to talk about it, I start crying. I did call my Aunt, and of course started crying, but she seemed OK. She seemed to have peace with it. "He's not suffering anymore", she said. "No matter what we wanted, at least he's not suffering, and he's in a better place now." She's right.

Fo all the times we spent together.
For all the times we spent apart.
For all the times we took for granted.
I remember you.
So smart
So weird
So quiet
So caring
So blessed
So..... you.
You will never be forgotten
and you'll always be in our hearts
I'm glad for the times I did get
And for all the times I was able to say I LOVE YOU!

I love you Warren. You will forever be missed. See you soon.
(Warren is the guy in the far right hand corner on the floor with the gray shirt on, and his mother is directly behind him).