“Every time the hospice people asked if they could do anything for him, he would answer that he was only worried about me, his wife. I tried not to cry, because he wanted his last days to be happy and without tears. Then, I opened his work bag and found it.”
‘When we got the news death was coming soon, I was driving us home. I started crying, and couldn’t stop. He held me on the side of the interstate. Then HE took over driving.’
‘Then I received this email. ‘Hi there, My dad has been fighting cancer. Dad is getting weaker by the day. We have to do this as soon as possible.’
“I couldn’t keep it together to talk on the phone. This is a very difficult and dark time, but I know how you feel about love. We are throwing this plan together really fast. We don’t know how long we have.”
‘You can’t leave me until we are married.’ I ran to the jewelry store for a ring. I told her she was my life, and I am not going anywhere. She smiled as she looked up at me.’
“When I spoke to the chaplain, he advised me his schedule was open until the 16th. My response was, ‘I was thinking tonight at 7:30.’”
‘I stood and watched from afar. He found the one man in the mall he felt deserved recognition and a ‘thank you.’ A man wearing a Navy veteran’s hat.’
“Without hesitation, he respectfully stood before that man who came 50 years before him, and told him he could rest easy, and that his generation would take it from there. All those sleepless nights, all the tears — magically disappeared. It suddenly became worth it.”
‘I told him his grandfather was dying. ‘He doesn’t look good, and may not recognize you.’ He said, ‘that’s fine Mom, I’ll just sit with him then.’ I looked over, and saw this.’
“An hour later, my brother called me. ‘Meghan I just found dad in the bathroom, he isn’t responsive.’ ‘Facetime me, let me try and talk to him!’ ‘No Meghan, I’m telling you, there’s something wrong.’ The image of my dad is something I’ll never forget.”
‘She said, ‘I’m sorry. There’s something wrong with your little girls’ chest.’
“The ultrasound tech couldn’t tell me what was wrong, she wouldn’t even tell me the gender of my baby. She kept making excuses to leave the room. I knew something was wrong, I had seen all of my sisters’ ultrasounds before, her babies never looked the way mine did.”
‘The receptionist uttered 10 words I will never forget, ‘Baby, it’s not good. You need to get here now.’ I knew I was sick, but nothing could’ve ever prepared me for what was happening.’
“Every symptom, dismissed as normal. At one point someone said, ‘You worried a lot with your daughter, don’t worry this time.’ To this day, those words haunt me.”
‘It was my child’s birthday. I heard a crackling noise. I was drowning in my own fluid. Literally. ‘I feel like I’m dying!’ As I raised my legs, I couldn’t even tell where my knee was. I. WAS. SWOLLEN.’
“I can distinctly recall that morning. I was tongue-tied and feeling worse by the minute. At the hospital, my mother-in-law told my husband, ‘You get back there NOW and get some answers or you are going to have a dead wife.’ She was right.”
‘He woke up in silence and called my name. It was his way of saying ‘goodbye.’ I made my way through the IV’s and monitors and laid next to my husband in the hospital bed.’
“When he was admitted into the hospital, I wanted to be there in the middle of the night if he needed me. One night, he did.”
‘Four years ago, he had 35 children in his care. Two weeks ago, he had 58. Today he has 62. Sixty-two children to feed, clothe, protect and most of all, love.’
“One of the most recent children almost lost an eye when his abusive stepmother bit him. Now he is recovering both physically and mentally.”
