from the moment Chris and James Armstrong married they created an unusual blended family that's because Chris brought with her her ex-husband Brandon they were high school sweethearts who married at 21 what do you remember about the wedding I still remember at being at the church and them opening the doors and walking down with my dad and seeing Brandon you know at the end of the aisle and just knowing that I wanted to spend my life with him and that I loved him two years after they got married
Brandon was T-Bone by a moving truck leaving him with a traumatic brain injury he was in a coma and we didn't know when or if he would wake up and what what would happen although he did wake up he was unable to take care of himself he was in something called post-traumatic Amnesia at that time and so his memory which really he's never really fully gotten out of but his memory was like 10 seconds long this was really when it became clear that I went from being a wife to a caregiver my friends eve
n came to me after I'd been doing this for several months they said we love you so much and we support you but you can't keep doing this you're drowning we see you drowning so after five years of caring for Brandon and longing to have children and wanting to again be in love with someone who could be in love with her Chris decided to divorce Brandon whenever I thought about moving forward with a divorce the thing that terrified me the most would be that I wouldn't be able to care for Brandon sta
nd up there we go so she asked the judge to make her Brandon's legal guardian and I told her you know nothing's going to change I'm going to continue to take care of Brandon forever and each year now I have to renew guardianship papers and they usually ask for a picture and now I get to send the picture of Brandon with our whole family and I've gotten to write the judge and tell her you know I don't know if you remember me but I've stood true to what I said and Brandon's an integral part of our
family by creating this family with James Armstrong she found love for herself and for Brandon it's a sad story but there's a lot of Beauty in it too yeah well you want to know what moved me the most when I heard the story the thought of you you loving her enough to help care for Brandon yeah that's what made me weep it's not just letting her it's looking Brandon too you know he needs us yeah he needs people that love him that love looks like feeding him maintaining his hygiene taking him to the
rapy appointments and giving him the wheelpower and little extra willpower to keep living I think in the physicality of him helping with Brandon that's one piece I mean the fact that we change Brandon together it's it's I I can do it by myself but it's very very hard um James helps me like that that is such a gift of love you ready you're can sit down I got you James cares for Brandon in the same fatherly way he watches he and chrises children four-year-old Meadow and six-year-old Juniper they s
nuggle up to the now 38-year-old man they call Uncle Brandon hey what's up dude hi sweetheart how are you huh Brandon lives in a nursing home but every few days they bring him home on the day we spent with them Juniper nearly jumped in Brandon's wheelchair after school it's tick it made me feel good to be able able to make him smile by playing his favorite artist you want to play some Bob Marley Bob Marley yeah Bob Marley yeah he was unusually engaged on the day we spent with them today I feel l
ike especially you're like super tuned in which is cool cuz it's like it comes and goes you know some days we we can really connect and some days we can't the good days and the not so good ones are chronicled on Chris's Tik Tok account there she has found some of the grief support she's always been looking for where do we both work in college we worked at Kasa KAS Brandon's long-term memory is one thing the accident didn't take away from him him entirely she is the one person he recognizes alway
s you remember the song that we um danc through at our wedding they read you Cinderella yeah he is a very part of who I am because I carry his heart in my heart and I always will and so the decisions that I've made to be have him in our life be a part of our family is because I can't not you know when somebody is so tied to you you can't untie that I love you before we left them Chris told us something James said which shocked us something so unlikely so improbable but so beautiful he said if so
me miracle were you know uh treatment happens for people with a brain injury and Brandon can be healed he said I want you to be with him you were with him first and I think that it's you know I don't think going to happen but just the fact that I don't know you're just a very special person you really are I don't think I am but just I do what I think is right yeah you know I do what my heart tells me to do and then James said this I also told her if anything happens to her where she passes away
I will fight for guardianship him yeah you will have another afoc
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