My brother Ross Gellan has a pretty good life; he really doesn’t have too much to complain about. He has a loving family, that supports him, and friends that will give him the shirts off their very back. A girlfriend? Not so much; she’s a work in progress, as Ross would say. Ross is just out of high school and entering his freshman year at a community college two hours outside of our home town. This is a big deal to Ross, seeing how he’s never lived away from home before; well besides when he house sat for our older brother for a few weeks.
A standout athlete in high school earned my brother a full basketball scholarship along with an apartment shared by his best friend. As far as Ross was concerned, this was going to being the best year ever. He was going to meet some girls, make new friends, go to school for free and play the sport he loved.
Ross is a pretty clean cut guy, dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, with olive colored skin. Always keeps his face a little scruffy with his hair short and spiked. A good dresser with no piercings or tattoos; because if he did, mom would kill him, literally! Ross doesn’t drink or smoke, seldom uses foul language and earns descent grades. You see, Ross is a pretty easy going guy, always putting others before himself. He is the comedian in the family, and he’ll be the first to tell you that. There is never a dull moment in the house when my brother is around; he’s the life of the party. Being his older sister, I’ve seen Ross in some pretty sticky situations, but not a whole lot seems to phase him. He usually handles himself pretty well.
My brother thought he was invisible, no one could touch him, and no problem was too big for him. Little did he know, that he would be tested and pushed to a point that he had never been pushed before.
The fall semester started, and Ross was immediately meeting new people and discovering new and interesting things. He learned quickly that macaroni and cheese can be combined with other foods to make “gourmet” dishes. And if he didn’t just throw his clothes on the floor after wearing them all day, he could wear them more then once before he washed them. He finally realized why mom was so adamant on cleaning his room, because before he knew it his floor was no longer visible and “mount Ross” seemed to form in the corner of his bedroom.
I remember talking to him one night as he explained how practice wasn’t so hard the first semester; just a lot of conditioning and learning plays. Ross was a point guard, so it was important for him to know the plays better then anyone else on the team. Lucky for Ross he had a photo graphic memory, like our dad. No girlfriend yet, he was “waiting for the right time” to pursue one. Ross and his relationships were always the topics of discussion at the dinner table. It was actually very entertaining.
Well anyway the first semester came and went, and before we knew it Ross was back home! It was Christmas break and it was like he never left; he immediately picked up right were he left off, making fun of mom, picking on our little brother and just making everyone laugh. He had us laughing so hard one night that our dad was actually in tears; only Ross! It was so good to have him back.
Ross and I are the closest in age out of the five kids, so we were always hanging out with the same friends at the same places. We went Christmas shopping the night before his birthday; his birthday is on the eighteenth. We did it for the past two years; we would go at night and take our time finding gifts for our parents and whoever we had in our family grab bag. My brother explained to me how he was thinking about transferring schools to go into the ministry, and how he felt called to youth. You see, Ross was a leader; it was natural. He would be an amazing youth pastor.
The next night, mom had a small cake for Ross with just the family; Ross never did like making a big deal out of his birthday. He opened a few gifts and a few cards, and then he was right back to entertaining us. The night wound down and Ross, told mom he was going to meet up with some friends for a late night movie. I had fallen asleep on the couch or else I probably would have went with him.
The theater was only fifteen minutes away, but the roads were slick and it was late. Mom let him take the Jeep and told him to just be careful. Careful was definitely not in Ross’s vocabulary, thinking back to his frequent emergency room visits. It was just like any other night though; mom fell asleep down stairs on the couch waiting for Ross, while everyone else was asleep in bed. I remember that night; I had a hard time staying asleep. I kept waking up and turning over and taking the covers off, then putting them on, then taking them off again. I heard the phone ring; I remember I opened my eyes to see what time it was. It was around one. It rang all the way through; mom must have missed the call. Sure enough it rang again, this time someone picked up on the second ring. Not even thinking twice about the phone call, I started to fall back asleep when the sound of my mother screaming and crying shot me out of my bed.
It was all kind of a blur from there. I remember my father running by my door down the stairs to my mother. Before I knew it everyone was up, and curious about the commotion. I’ll never forget that night as long as I live. You see, Ross was on his way back home for the theater coming down route 104, minding his own business. Knowing Ross, he probably had his favorite worship song blasting in the back round. He was about ten minutes from our house when a drunk driver passed out at the wheel and crossed the center line into on coming traffic. Ross had no time to jerk the wheel or honk the horn or anything.
The vehicles met head on, killing the drunk driver instantly and knocking Ross unconscious. All the police officer could tell my parents on the phone was that my brother was alive, but in bad shape. There was no getting ready for this trip to the hospital, we all immediately jumped in the car and went straight to the hospital where they were bringing Ross. So many things were going through my head at that point in time. Old memories of Ross kept popping in my head. I just kept picturing him smiling and cracking jokes when we arrived at the hospital. But there was none of that; when we arrived we were met by a doctor who explained to us Ross’s injuries and situation. Mom was a wreck and dad was trying his best to keep it together for all of us, but he broke down as well.
My brother suffered two broken legs, a collapsed lung and a broken arm. His face was badly scraped and cut from the broken glass. Ross was in a coma, and the doctors weren’t sure when he would wake up, if he even woke up. You could barley recognize him, because his face was so swollen. My mother didn’t leave his side; not for a minute.
The days went by slow, it felt like forever. Christmas came, but was not like a normal Christmas. Instead of spending it at home around the tree with Ross playing a Christmas mix on the cd player; we were all around his hospital bed, still in disbelief of the whole situation. Nurses frequently came in and out and checked vitals and changed IV bags. But still Ross lay there lifeless. The swelling in his face went down, but the bruises took over and filled his body.
Mom would talk to Ross, as if he were awake. The doctor said, he wasn’t sure if he could hear us talking to him or not, but my mom could careless. She would tell him that he was going to be alright and that he was going to pull through. She would hold his hand, and tell him smile or squeeze if he could hear her. Mom did this everyday; the doctor said it was a good thing.
At this point, our grandparents were in the room, and we were going to have Christmas right there. What happened next will forever be engrained in my head. We were going to open our grab bags gifts right then in there, because that’s what Ross would of wanted. Opening presents was always his favorite part. Well anyway, my mom sat there next to Ross and said “Ross squeeze my hand if you wanna open presents”. We all smiled at the thought of it, but didn’t really get our hopes up. Just then Ross’s hand slowly grasped my mom’s hand. She immediately started to cry. We all looked down at him as a big smile came upon his face and his eyes slowly opened. We all gasped, and crowded around. Everyone one was crying at this point, and in shock. Ross looked up and worked up enough strength to say, “Sorry about the jeep”, with a big grin on his bruised face.