My Daddy

Some of you may have wondered if I have fell of the face of the earth.  And I guess partly I have, off the blogger world anyway.  You see 3 days after Christmas my sisters 40th birthday, my father was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.  The first call I received was from my mother at around 7:30am here in Oregon saying dad was dehydrated and his blood pressure was not stable.  I instantly was worried but you see my father has always had some form of health problem so I was naively thinking he would be okay.  Then a couple of hours later I got another call saying he was admitted to our local hospital and the doctor on call was booked for the day and my dad had to have emergency surgery and they wanted to take him to the best hospital around in Birmingham(1hr drive) but they didn't think he would make it so they took him to another closer hospital.  I was at home alone and of course call my husband and we are both waiting by the phone for any update.  My uncle calls next to inform me the surgery was done and they ended up having to take my fathers stomach out and half of his intestines.  And the next 18 to 24hrs were critical.  He told me he didn't know if he should tell me to fly home or not because he didn't want to have to make that call.
I instantly then feel a need to get home but knew Marc and I could never afford to.  We had just moved here, he had just started his new job, we are living off of one paycheck now instead of two.  We probably could have afford one ticket but then who would take care of the kids?  We didn't have a handful of friends like in Alabama.  By then the kids were home and I informed them of what had happen.  My daughter's light shown so bright when she said very convincing that dad could just go to work late and she could watch Marchal after school so I could go.  I love that about her!  You see the ticket prices were doubled because of New Year's.  So I could go that Saturday but I am talking about Tuesday.  ARG. Thankfully my momma called and said to look for some tickets and told me to charge it to her card and to bring the kids with me.  "Thank you Mom" I am so glad I did too because we ended up there almost 3 weeks.
So we finally get out there on Wednesday.  He made it through the night but nothing changed.  They had to give him medicine to keep his blood pressure normal and had plans in the next day or so to go back in to surgery to see how things were.  So two days later, they open him up and notice more of his intestines have died and they cleaned everything up and decided to wait another couple of days to see how things go.  Well on the day of his surgery he was doing well and almost had been taken completely off the blood pressure meds and his fever was stable.  We actually thought he would be fine when they went into surgery the next day.  We had it all planned that they would go in and put in his feeding tubes and how and who would help mom when she needed it. 
Sadly, the next day when they went in the doctor said everything else had died and there was no hope for him.  It was a sad day to see my mom lose her best friend and  man she was married to for 46 years.  To have to help my siblings and mother make those decisions of life support or not, funeral arrangements etc was all like a dream. It still seems like one today. 
I don't like to dwell on the why and what but really try to think of all the good my dad did while here on earth.  I love that people think of him when they think of Football. Esp Auburn.  THE NATIONAL CHAMPS.  WOO HOO.   I love that my children knew and loved him very much.  I loved that he did get to walk my down the isle(that was a fear of mine as a child). I love that I had him to show me the example to help others in need.  To show me how to work hard.  To show me to be strong.  I love that he was able to visit me last November and see my new home and he was able to walk on the sand.(something he has not done in years).  I love that I was able to take him Christmas shopping for my kids(his favorite Holiday ever).  I love that I was able to joke and hug him while he was here.  My father and I had this smarty pants relationship and I really loved more than anything to see his smirky smile on his face.  
I will miss my father dearly but have a peace that he is Heaven with our creator and one day I will see him again and be able to see his smile.  Until then I will have lots of memories to keep my soul smiling.  Thanks for the memories, lessons, laughs, and esp all the love.  I love you DAD!