An Open Letter

As many of you may know, my little brother Jonny was admitted to Strong Memorial Hospital on Wednesday morning with a traumatic brain injury. I came from Boston on Wednesday evening and have been here since then. My mom started a Caring Bridge website to update our friends and family on Jon's progress, which you can access here.

I want to start by thanking everyone who has come to Strong to see Jon and our family. The love and support we have gotten in the past two days is incredible. Thousands of people have visited Jon's website and hundreds have posted their thoughts and prayers. This has been an extremely challenging time for us and it is a comfort to have so many people behind us. It's as if our already large family has expanded exponentially. Yesterday, we took over most of the ICU waiting room and the Ronald McDonald House common area. There is enough food to feed an army and enough love to fill our hurting hearts. I literally have never seen so many chocolate chip cookies in one place in my life (although they're diminishing by the minute).

I've always done better in writing than I have in person, so I'm trying to say to Jon what I do not have the strength to say when I am with him. Although the doctors say that he can hear us, I also believe that he has limited internet access to my blog. Don't ask me how- I just know. This letter is to you.

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Goobs,

I'll start with my most common adage during a close game- keep your composure. Composure is the calm and control we all have inside of us, something that you have filling you up to the brim. You have the composure, the strength, and the patience to make it through this difficult fight. Any composure you lack is coming from God, who can hear all the people praying for you and is giving you strength in spite of the time you fell asleep during Christmas midnight mass (it was so long ago, after all).

Know that we are all here for you, praying and pulling for you. Just like you have always been here for the rest of us, with a joke or a smile or a chicken wing pizza. We're returning the countless, selfless things that you have done for so many others, things that are appreciated more than you could ever know. I know you can hear the (bad) jokes we are making, see the smiles we make because we know you can hear them. I wish I could bring you a wang sub with extra blue cheese, wrapped up fresh from Aniello's.

More than anything, remember that you are a fighter. You thrive in close, important games and this is your closest and most important one yet (although your last East West game is up there). You will get through this. Because at the end of the day, we're just a bunch of regular people, hanging out with a National Champion. Continue fighting like the champion you are. I love you.

Love,
Sari