The summer of 2007 was supposed to be the greatest summer of my life. It was one that I have been waiting patiently for since that Christmas. That was the year my little girl dreams of meeting all the princesses at Disney would come true. About two months before this trip was supposed to take place another event had taken its toll. It was one that I know I will never forget.

Both of my parents were outside enjoying the July sunshine just as we had done most days that summer. I went in the house thinking I would just go to the bathroom and then come back out to my parents sipping on lemonade in the sun, but that was not the case. Suddenly, out of the mellow sound of the wind swaying the curtains through the open windows, right on the other side of the bathroom door I heard the sound that was only the beginning of what was going to be a long journey for our family.

I opened the door, and there he was. My brother was on the hallway floor; body sprawled out, shaking and his eyes in the back of his head with only the whites showing. He was crying out to me, but the only thing I knew to do was run to my parents. They had heard me screaming before I had even got outside to retrieve them. They went immediately to my brother, but I had no means of seeing whatever was going on inside my house at that moment. I rushed outside to find my best friend, my cat. Her fur became matted together with the moisture of my tears when I buried my face in her fur and did the only thing that I knew to do at that moment. I prayed with all I could that God would be with my brother and parents to get them through whatever was going on inside. I prayed that He wouldn’t take my brother away from me.

My dad frequently came outside frantically to check on me, but I really don’t think he wanted to be in the house anymore than I did. He eventually told me that the ambulance would be on its way after what seemed like a few hours, but was only 15 minutes. After awhile I heard gravel spinning at the end of the driveway, and I undoubtedly knew that the paramedics had arrived. I directed them to take the stretcher into the front door where they proceeded through the living room and then into the hallway where my brother still laid. I continued to stay outside through the paramedics’ procedures. It took both of my parents plus the two paramedics to keep him restrained so they could get him onto the stretcher, but that wasn’t enough. The next thing I saw of my brother was him strapped down to a piece of plastic that would soon be inside the ambulance taking him to the hospital. I pulled myself together enough to get up from the porch step where I was watching this all occur and asked the paramedic through my sobs if my brother was going to be okay. His answer did not assure any of us very well.

My mom rode in the ambulance to the hospital while my dad and I followed in the car. That is when I told my dad that I wasn’t ready for my brother to die yet. After that, it seemed like everything was in slow motion. It took forever to get to the hospital, but when we did arrive we were greeted by the smell of cleaning solution and a mass of nurses that rushed us to one of their few available rooms. He was immediately hooked up to what seemed like every machine that was in the room. There were wires coming off of that boy galore. After their numerous tests and procedures, which I sat outside the room in the hallway for, they had determined that Brad had had a seizure.
This turned out to be one of four seizures that Brad would have in the upcoming months. After having done research about how and why this occurred, we learned that it’s normal for autistic children to have seizures when they are going through puberty. Even though it is still possible for him to experience more seizures now, 8 years later, my family knows what to do in case of another occurrence. Even though it didn't turn out to be the vacation I envisioned, the more important thing was that I had my brother there beside me to enjoy it with.