Mamma Mia!

Mia mamma, Anna Lucia Bianchini, has defied all the proverbial odds to survive her horrendous and life-threatening brain injury sustained in a bicycle accident on February 25th 2009. She is now back home after 154 long and worrying days. I was in England for 100 of those days to provide moral and physical support to my family. My mother was strong enough to pull through those critical weeks in the Intensive Care Unit at the JR Hospital, Oxford. We will be forever grateful to all the doctors and nurses there who helped my mother towards the next stage of her recovery. The care she received at Isis House was fantastic and the final stage of her rehabilitation at the Oxford Centre for Enablement was second to none.

The Healing Power of Time
With expert care and help, guidance and treatment over the 5 months, mia cara mamma seems to be nearly back to her old self. Of course, after serious brain injury, fatigue is a big problem and my mother now requires a lot of rest periods throughout the day. Pre-accident, rest was definitely not a word in her vocabulary! She was a whirlwind of activity, multi-tasking cheerfully and the centre of our universe. Memory loss is another big challenge. There are sections of my mother's life which have been literally wiped out. She has had to relearn how to walk, think, move, react and essentially "be". The healing power of time, however, knows no bounds and I hope that eventually, things will get easier. Like the picture of the bright moon taken by K from our balcony the other night, the usual cycle of life will carry on and my mother will shine ever brightly to illuminate our lives once more.


A Happy Birthday
In August, shortly after leaving the excellent OCE Rehabilitation Centre, we were able to celebrate my mother's birthday in style and the photo above shows my parents together at long last. It was indeed a special day for all of us.

A Formidable Abruzzese Woman
My mother is a worthy candidate of the strictly limited membership of the Formidable Abruzzese Women's Club. The Wordle below sums up the reason why.

A Huge Thank You
On behalf of my father and my sisters, I would like to say a very BIG thank you to all family members, friends, carers, hospital-support staff, colleagues and well-wishers who helped us throughout this difficult period of our lives. Without your moral support, kind wishes, thoughts and prayers and most of all, practical help, this story may not have had such a hope-inspiring conclusion. We appreciate your help enormously.

My mum on Sunday August 2nd in Marilena and Paul's beautiful garden in Oxford.