Have you ever had one of those months when everything seems to go from bad to worse to worst? That’s how we felt last summer during one of the most trying times for our family.
We live in a farming community, and summers are a busy season for everyone. But, we had to put most of our plans on hold to help my brother. He almost died from a drug overdose, and this crushed my parents. My brother had lived in the city with my uncle a few years ago and fell in with the wrong company. He started abusing drugs to the point that he could no longer live with them. So, they sent him back home, and my parents did all they could to help him. But, he was having such a hard time with the addiction. On top of dealing with this matter, we also had to function with a failing AC system. At the start of summer, dad called an AC worker to tune up the unit. When she evaluated the AC system, she advised my dad to start preparing to purchase a new cooling system. The one we had was on its last leg and would soon fail and be beyond repair. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we got one of the worst heat waves in our area. Our poor AC system tried to keep the house cool for a couple of days. But, one day, it just stopped working, and we were left moving two portable AC units around the house to keep ourselves cool. Everyone hoped summer would be over and we’d have better luck in fall or winter.