James "Kyle" Berry, born May 19, 1983, became an angel on May 02, 2006.
Kyle father (Jim) and I were married in 1978, we waited five years to begin a family. The day I found out I was pregnant was one of the happiest days of my life. I gained 50 pounds during those 9 months, but that didn't stop me from eating thos doritos. lol
My water broke on the 19th of May at 8:00 in the morning, they say that you shouldn't take a shower, but I did before I went to the hospital...Kyle was so large (9.9lbs)
so my labor wasn't as long as some, he was born at 2:11 pm that day...with long dark hair with blonde highlights running through it. The nurses said they never seen hair like that, and I had to start trimming it some at 6 weeks because it was in his eyes, and many thought he was a girl, especially with those long eyelashes.
He was such an easy baby to take care of, always hungry, but he would sleep through the night after a few months and take 2 hour naps through the day. When he began crawling you would have to watch him so close, then he began walking at almost 10 months. So fearless, and so ready to take on the world. I worked at an eye clinic when Kyle was a 1 1/2 years old, being around other children who worse glasses, I knew what to look for if their eye sight wasn't very good, and I noticed one of Kyle's eyes turning in some, so my boss checked his eyes at that age, and we found out he was very farsighted and had a lazy eye because of it, so at 18 months my baby was wearing glasses with one lens coated over the good eye to help strengthen the weak eye. When school started, I started getting notes and phone calls from his teacher telling me Kyle was always disrupting the class, wasn't able to stay on task, and any sound, like a pencil dropping would take him off task. So we went to a child phycologist, who tested him in depth and diagnosis him with ADHD..they prescribed ritalin, which helped him through out school.
But, he was one who just didn't like books and sitting still, he felt inferior to the other kids, thought he was stupid, and I as a mother worried about him so, constantly having him tutored and constantly trying to build him up. He realized as he gotten older that he was gifted in other areas, he could take something apart that was so complex and put it back to together in no time, so I continued to praise him on the gifts he had and as he approached his late teen years he was called upon by so many of his friends to help them repair anything they had, from stereos to their car motors, they rented a storage building and worked on their cars and trucks sometimes all through the night, and then sleep until 3:00 in the afternoon on the weekends. He also was an avid golfer, with a natural and graceful swing, I use to take him to all the tournaments and walk along side, and at times hurt when he was struggling through a tough round. His dream was to own his own motorcycle repair business, so when I met Philip and decided to move to Florida, Kyle and his girlfriend of 3 years decided to move along with us so he could attend MMI (motorcycle mechanic Int.) in Orlando, Fl. First him, Kristin and myself packed up my car and rented a car hauler and traveled the 15 hours to central florida, Kyle and I would take turns driving, we had a good time doing this, felt closer to him than I have since he was a toddler. I thought at that time,
Thank you God for getting us through the teen years and school and helping me raise a fine young man" . I felt so happy and I really enjoyed his company and conversations. After I divorced his father, Kyle was sorta of my protector of sorts, well in his mind he thought he would make sure I was watched over and that no one would ever hurt me, our roles of being Mother and Son changed, and I thought it was so endearing. After we reached Florida, Philip borrowed a truck and 24 ft. trailer, we rested 2 days and headed back to Arkansas, all 4 of us to pack all our stuff, and pack up my parents stuff so they could move in my home in Ark.
Kyle began school in Orlando, he went to school at 6:00 pm and left at 11:30 Pm, slept for a few hours and worked at Sam's at 5:00 am. His girlfriend was working at Sam's also and was to begin a community college soon. I guess the pressures of life cause them to start arguing, being away from home and friends, so Kristin decided to find new friends, which left Kyle feeling angry and alone...she wanted to move out, leaving Kyle with all the bills and just $20 in his pocket. Philip and I went to Orlando, packed up what was left in the apartment and moved him in with us.
He kept going to school, but his mind wasn't on it, he was down and depressed and wanted to leave for 6 weeks to Arkansas to spend some time with his buddies to get his mind off her..But he also didn't know if he would come back, so we packed a uhaul of his things and he drove straight through by himself back home.
On April 19th, I received a phone call from a friend, whom I never met of Kyle's, his first words at 12:30 am was that Kyle was in a motorcycle accident, to come to the Elvis Presley Trauma Center in Memphis right away, I told him I was in Florida and asked him if he contacted Kyle's dad and he said he couldn't get ahold of him. I asked him if Kyle was consious...he said "Oh he's moving some, he's saying something"..all the sentences were so broken up of this young man's mouth. I said I would call Jim, Jim answered and I told him, he said he would call me as soon as he got to the hospital...Gawd, I didn't now what to do, when you are so far away and your baby is hurt, not knowing what is happening...it was 2 hours before I received a call from Jim, he said Valerie, you need to get here...Kyle has internal bleeding..he has lost 18 units of blood already and they are searching desparately to find out where it's coming from. I had my Dad living with me, he has alztheimers, so I called my brother in Texas to see if he would watch Dad for a month at least, because I didn't know how long I would be there, booked a flight for Dad, and booked one for Philip and I at the same time..
When the plane landed I called Jim first thing, he said they stopped the bleeding, I thought "Thank GOD" he said to warn me that he is all swollen and to see him will frighten me, so to stay calm. My son weighs 250 pounds, he's 6'3" tall, when I walked in that room and saw him he covered that small hospital bed, especially since he was so swollen...the doctor's said he was in extreme critical state, but he's young and strong, he has alot going for him. You see, his pelvis was busted up, no head trauma, so right now all they were trying to do was keep him alive, not doing anything else, and to do that thay put rods in his pelvis to keep him still, not to fix them yet, and they put him a paraletic state, meaning he could probably hear, but won't be able to move or open his eyes. Everyday I was there during every visiting time, asking questions, rubbing his head and arm, I still feel his arm to this day, how it felt so large and the skin so tight from being swollen, slowly he was losing fluids, slowly he started to look like Kyle. His stomach was not inside him, they had it covered with a clear plastic bag and a sheet, they were waiting for more swelling to go down so they can eventually take graphs from his thighs to cover his open belly. After a week, they were concerned with renal failure, his potassium levels were dropping, On May 1st, they were beginning to show improvements, and if they improve to a certain level they would take him to surgery to do the graphs. I sent Philip back the Sunday before, when the doctors said he was improving some, but not out of the woods, I was staying with a friend who lived a block from the hospital. I was told by all the doctors that his healing will take a long time, and he might be in ICU for a month or longer, so I wasn't going to leave until he was out of the hospital. On the morning of May 02nd, (Tuesday) I went to the hospital, they informed me that since his vitals improved that they were going to do the graph surgery that day, so I kissed my baby, and stroked his hair and told him over and over how much I loved him, I went to the waiting room, only me, and sat their talking to other parents there who had kids in ICU, I felt positive. Finally the phone rings, the nurse said that the surgey went well and since I missed visiting hours that as soon as he is back in the room I could go see him, so at 6:00 I went in and everything looked great, they said all went well, his vitals were good.
I left and came back at 9:00, a doctor and a nurse were in the room looking at one of the machines, they said that his blood pressure was lower than they wanted, and with the surgery he lost some blood, so they were going to give him a unit of blood. That not to worry, get some rest.
So I went to Brooks, took a sleeping pill because I could rest well, and at 12:30 am again, my cell rings it was the hospital, they wanted me to come down...I woke Brook up and she and I parked the car and when I saw the chaplain at the door and he turned and walked the other way, I felt uneasy...we walked down that long hallway to ICU, Brook buzzed them and they said to wait a minute the nurse will be there...you see, I knew he was gone, they usually just push a button and let you in...I peeked through the crack of the double doors and I saw the doctor that was there earlier, the nurse and the chaplain walking towards the door...the door opened...words were coming out of his mouth...I kept saying to myself..."Just say it" "Just tell me"...and finally he did...Everything else after that was like something took over my body to allow me to go through the motions, to go sign for the small bag of belongings that Kyle had on him...his tongue stud, his watch, some change, his wallet...I held them and looked at them and was in total disbelief....I know this is long....but I haven't told this, but once, and to go through it again was something I needed to do....Valerie