My Dad.....

My Dad is pretty amazing!  And I''m so grateful that I have the privilege of being his daughter!  But last Saturday was scary!  We got a call at 4:00 am from Barbara saying that Dad felt like he was having a heart attack again, and they were headed to the Emergency room and could Alan and Bishop Willden come and give him a blessing!  The good news is, after the tests, they determined that it wasn't a heart attack, so that's good I guess, but what was causing the pain, that felt like a heart attack??  They said he had a mini stroke and that some of the pain could be from an ulcer....  Neither one of those things make me feel any better, because in fact my mother had several mini strokes until she had the stroke that killed her.  And she also had an ulcer that burst open when they tried to go in and fix it, which was the surgery right before the last one that she never came home from!!  Ever since a couple of years ago with his heart attack and kidney stones and high blood pressure, and erratic heart beating he really has never recovered!!  And it concerns me.  And my biggest fear is that he is not going to be with us much longer.....so we have been trying to not let opportunities to spend time together go...and we are trying to make the most of our time with him on earth!!

So, the day that my dad was in the emergency room so early in the morning, was Aileen's birthday party and even though they had released him, I knew he was so weak and needed to be home in bed resting that I never expected him to come to the birthday party!  But he did, and I was so happy he got to see his great granddaughter again.  He was so weak that he did not feel like he could hold her, but he reached up and held her hand and loved on her.  It was a tender moment and it will be forever a tender memory!!

Love you Daddy!!