I Miss You Dad.....Day 2

Three years ago today. The next day. Saturday morning. April 23, 2005. I was awakened by my mother at 7am. She called to tell me something had happened to my father. She said he'd collapsed in his house and the paramedics were there "working on him". I hung up and immediately called his house. His wife answered. I asked her if it was true. She was screaming. She said they were trying to revive him to transfer him to the hospital. Then she said, "I HAVE TO GO!" and she hung up.

I was frantic. I called my brother, Robbie and my sister, Brenda. We all made plans to get to San Francisco as soon as possible. It just so happened that three of us would arrive after midnight, with my brother getting in late afternoon. I would be traveling from N.C., Brenda from Florida, my brother from Seattle and my other sister from Colorado.

Since Robbie would get there first, he would pick the three of us up when we arrived. My friend, Stephanie, drove me to the airport and then took care of Kendra and Kolby until their father got back in town. (Thanks, Stef!) On the plane, I could think of little else except my father and what his condition would be when I arrived. I couldn't stop crying. I was stared at by other passengers, but I gave no explanation. I was terrified. How bad was it? Would I make it on time? It was the longest flight of my life.

When we all met up at the airport, Robbie told us we needed to be prepared. He'd already seen Dad and said it was bad. Real bad. I think we were still in denial. We kept saying, "Oh, my gosh, Robbie, he's going to be fine."

Finally, we were at the hospital. We rushed to his room. We walked in. Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. There he was. My father. My Daddy. So helpless and fragile. He was unconscious and hooked up to all kinds of machines. I ran to him. The first thing I noticed was his eye. It was glazed over and looked so incredibly painful. I replayed our conversation over and over from the day before. Then, I lost it.

For the first time since this nightmare began, I was really scared. And, this was just the beginning.