NICOLAS RODRIGUEZ

Hi everyone,

Though we’ve never been a family to reach out to outside support for much of anything, it deepens me sadly to know that there is limited choice in doing so.

On March 24th, my brother Nicolas suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm while at work. He was rushed to an emergency room in Naperville where the aneurysm was clipped, but unfortunately as was a well working blood vessel, causing a stroke on top of a brain aneurysm. When I say 30 Rodriguez’s rushed from the suburbs, city, different ends of the state to the hospital to sit in an emergency room floor from 9a-8p the next evening, I do not kid you. Why? Because we’ve always had each other. That’s how our father raised us and that’s how Nick kept us. Due to the clipping of the working blood vessel, Maria (and if you know Nick.. you know Maria) requested an emergency transfer at 6am, pleading and begging the EMTs to keep Nick’s heart… pumping. For that, we thank the EMTs from that night. We wouldn’t have come this far without them. Nick was stabilized at Rush since 3/25.

Since March, all of us have gathered in the waiting room of Rush to sit, talk, eat, and cry with one another. We gather around like a mini army, spread across two seater couches, single chairs, window sills. We swap out of his room 2 at a time, never missing a beat. Constantly reminding Nick that he is not alone, that we miss him, that we love him, and that we can’t wait to see his eyes open. To his wife, who sleeps at his bedside nightly and reminding us every two minutes about how we cannot leave Nick alone for a second… thank you for holding us together.

For those who know Nicolas, I know that I don’t need to say much. For those who don’t, please allow me to shed some light on someone we all sincerely and irrevocably miss hearing from, seeing… and often laughing with. Nick is the person his kids and his wife go to when their stomachs growl, their car is making a “weird” noise, their car gets stuck in the middle of a highway, they hit a curb and don’t know how to get around it, to play hide and go seek in the house. To his siblings- he’s our older brother. He’s guided us into who we are, who our families are, who we have WANTED to be. He's kept us all together, always. Always referring to us as “my beautiful sister” or “my handsome brother”. When we don’t necessarily agree with each other, Nick’s the first one to remind us that through everything, we have each other.

We’ve set a goal to help support his wife and kids through medical bills and the time that Nick has missed out on work. Not only medical bills for procedures that have passed but for what Nick’s future ahead looks like—whether that be short term or long term rehabilitation. We know this is a long road to recovery. This is us asking for help.

From the bottom of our hearts, we thank you for continuing to read this far. Please keep Nick in your prayers and your thoughts as we continue to navigate a future on hold.