God gave Gabriel to me on May 30 1973.
Gabe was a happy baby. As a child Gabe was
smart and had a good imagination.
He was always very content playing by himself.
When he was in the second grade he had a disease called Leg Perthes, which
effected the hip joint.
For 10 month he wore cast on his legs from his hips
to his toes with bar between to keep his leg spread apart so that his
hip joint would stay in the socket. He was such a brave and determined
little boy. We lived 3 blocks from the grade school and, with the
assistance of crutches, he would walk to and from school every day and not
one complaint did I hear from him.
On October 24, 1990 Gabe was accidentally shot,
at close range with a 44
magnum, by a friend. The bullet entered his chest, at an angle, puncturing
the top of his right lung and exiting his back on the inside of his left
shoulder blade. As the bullet passed through it severed his spinal cord at
the T1 and T2 level. This left Gabe paralyzed from under the arms down.
Gabe kept his chin up and kept on going. He was always the life of the
party and loved making people laugh. He had his bad days, of course, but I
was the only one to ever see him cry.
After about 5 years we started battling bedsores and in 2001 he had a leg
removed at the hip due to osteomylytis in the bone. Again he kept moving
forward. Gabe touched a lot of lives and a lot of hearts.
Gabe and I had our aurguments and he lashed out at me but it was his way of
releasing his anger and I didn't mind because I knew he really didn't mean
the things he said.
A mothers love is a very strong thing.
The last month of Gabes life I could tell he had developed a peace
within himself. He was very sweet and gentle towards me. A life long
friend of ours told me about 2 weeks before he passed
away that he had came down to visit and more or less Gabe told him good-bye.
He was getting tired of living the way he was.
Gabe wanted to see the movie "Walk the Line", he was a big Johnny Cash fan.
My cousin took him to the theater to see it. He said about half way through
the movie he looked over and Gabes head was fallen back and he could not get a
response out of him. At least he was doing what he wanted to
do when he passed away.
Gabe, without you, there will always be a part of me missing. But, I know
you are in a better place now and are once again whole.
I love you with all my heart.
