Face forward - even if not moving forward

Hello everyone,
Another heroic effort in life over adverse circumstances is shown by my parents. They have now been married over 40 years and have toughed out some hard things. It makes the issues of my previous marriage seem like a little spat between two kids. Try these on for size (and not in chronological order):

-your first child is born with severe asthma and other psychological disorders (looking back, I believe he had ADHD, among other things). The conventional psychological “wisdom” of the time blamed the parents for this child’s psychological maladjustments.
-I am born. Everything’s normal.
-things get so bad with the first child, and my parents cannot afford specialized treatment, that they have to turn over custody of this child to the province – a practice still being done, I hear .
-mom’s heart aches for a daughter. At this stage, they are told there will be no more children due to some gynaecological problems. They adopt my sister as an infant. She becomes a rebellious hellion in her teens .
-lo and behold, my younger brother is born less than two years after adopting my sister . Everyone is surprised, but he really will be the last addition to the family.
-dad falls at the factory. He lands on his lower back. Later that same year, a disc ruptured and emergency surgery leaves him mostly bed-ridden for a year. Will he work again?
-mom goes back to school to become a high school teacher. After years of study and work, she graduates. High school populations drop. There is no opportunity for her at all due to a glut of teachers .
-In the mean time, the factory has found a place for dad to work that accommodates his physical condition. He stays there for another 15 years and eventually retires on full pension . I defy any company to do that today.
-the youngest brother wins a car in a potato chip contest as a young teen. He takes the money instead (you could at that time), and begins learning about computers. He eventually uses that money for a U.S. based college education and has been working there ever since.
-the youngest brother “comes out” as gay. How do you reconcile that with a staunch upbringing in the Christian Reformed Church?
-in supporting my brother, my parents lose many life-long friends and eventually leave the CRC .
-the hellion daughter meets a red-neck Canadian military guy. They shack up (another CRC no-no). In due time, she turns out pretty sweet and they have a son .
-the oldest brother dies a few months after an emergency appendectomy. He was 28 .
-the middle son (me) gets married. He has a strained marriage from the get-go and a daughter is born within the first year – my parent’s first grandchild.
-the middle son’s marriage breaks up.
-dad’s back condition gets progressively worse. Various medications and cortisone treatments are required for daily living.

Talk about fortitude. I haven’t seen nuthin’ yet. My parents don’t always get along (“Yes, dear!” – God, I hate that phrase ), but they always stay together. We surviving kids wonder what adjustments we may have to make to support our parents in the years to come. Perhaps that will be our test of fortitude.

Henry