“Do you realize that this could have been our last video of you?” Olivia reflected suddenly with a tinge of sadness mixed with relief while going through the photos of our past year.
I shuddered.
It was a video of the five of us standing tall through the roof of the open-air safari jeep at Nakuru National Park, the day before I came down with severe malaria and almost died. Indeed, the video could easily have been the last video of me made.
“You all experienced trauma!” Liz announced. “That means Dad, Mom, Olivia, Nathan, and Joani all experienced a major traumatic event — Jonathan almost died. Each one of you needs to acknowledge that you are still recovering from the trauma.”
All five of us listened intently over Zoom around the dining table as Liz, our family counselor, shared to us what she has observed.
“When such traumatic event happened, something has changed. One should not expect things will go back to the way it was before,” Liz continued.
Indeed, the past two months had been very difficult for our family. First, it was my sickness. Then Annie hit burnt out from taking care of me. The children suddenly “lost” both their father and mother as they had to focus on getting well and had to suddenly take on many everyday responsibilities.
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