We had a big day ahead of us with a wedding and reception at the winery. I'll talk a little about the day and then I'm going to spend some extra time talking about the bride and how special she is to us. Even beyond that she is actually kin to us.
Kaylee made it downstairs for her meds and then she had a Breakfast Essential. Tabatha got ready earlier than the rest of us so she could go over and meet some of the folks about the wedding. I ended up going over a little before Noon while Kaylee picked out outfits. They were going to try and have the wedding out in the vineyard, so we figured we had better take multiple outfits today as options or secondary outfits.
I came back to the office house 2:00 and took a shower. Dawn and her girls had come by the house and was hanging out with the rest of the family today, so I got to see them for a few minutes. Everybody got ready to leave about the same time. Kaylee took her 3:00 meds and then we drove to the winery and Mom and Dad also drove over. Kaylee got ready for her nap as soon as she got over there. Thomas was on his way, but he ended up staying in the winery building and Kaylee took about an hour nap.
The wedding had started by the time she got out of the camper, so she stayed at the winery until everyone came back. Kaylee had several people talking with her and saying how happy they were to see her and hear how well she is doing. Even one of the band members. Kaylee spent some time at the reception but mostly spend time out in the camper watching TV with Thomas. The band was great, but a little too loud for her. She handles loud music way better than the first year after her TBI, but it can still bother her sometimes. They stayed until Midnight and went home, with Thomas going to his house. I stayed until 1:00 and then came home also. Kaylee didn't turn her light off until a little after 1:00.
We knew of the bride, Kayla Joyce, but didn't really get to know her until a little over four years ago. Kayla's grandma, Lynetta, is a first cousin to my Dad. I think that makes Kayla's Mom, Mitzi, and I second cousins. We knew of Kayla, but we didn't know her. Our paths would cross though on December 6, 2019. But we didn't know that day that they had crossed.
Kayla is a surgical tech at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. When Kaylee was flown to Roanoke and they did the first surgery to remove part of her skull, Kayla was the surgical tech for that surgery. At the time, Kayla had no idea that a family member was on the operating table. It wasn't until several days later when her Mom and Grandma talked about a young female family member being flown to Roanoke with life threatening injuries. When they talked about the dates, Kayla knew that it was Kaylee's surgery she was involved with.
Once she knew that, she started coming to the waiting room to see us. She told us who she was and then told us she was in the operating room with Kaylee. And she would regularly check in and see us. Four months later, when Kaylee was having both sides of her skull placed back, I am pretty sure Kayla was in on at least one of those surgeries. She was already family, but this puts her higher up than just a second cousin once removed for me.
I asked Kayla if it was OK to mention her tonight in the Caring Bridge update and she said that would be fine. She then asked me if it was OK to tell a few of the people she works with how she is doing. One of the people who came to her wedding tonight was actually in Kayla's second surgery that day when they removed the other side of the skull. Kayla wanted our permission to tell the people she works with how Kaylee is doing. We of course told her yes. We are pretty open about Kaylee anyway, but we really want all of the people involved in saving her life to know how she is doing. And to know that she would not be here if it weren't for all of them.
It's so special to have gotten to know Kayla more over the last four years. I wish we had gotten to know her better without a near-death experience for Kaylee, but I sure am happy that we had family in that operating room with her. She told us that she would ride by the vineyard when she was younger and told her Mom that whenever she got married, she wanted to have the wedding outside in our vineyard. And it happened. Even with the rains today. She had the wedding she had wanted and we got to spend the day and evening with her and the family. Life has some amazing turns that you sometimes just don't see coming. For good and bad. But today, it was all good.
