With Great Sadness…
It’s been a while since I posted. In February, my mom and I went down to SoCal for our family reunion and I have a post drafted about that but never finished it. Then I just sort of lost motivation for posting for a while. Then Easter came. My mom, dad, and I went to my Grandmama’s for Easter Sunday and got to see family and celebrated my dad’s birthday (which was April 5). We had a great time and my dad even went to spend time with the boys at the pool house and played a couple rounds of pool. We had a great dinner with family. The drive home was crazy long. It took us 3 hours to get home (normally a little over an hour drive) and we (mom, dad, and I) played games and just had a great time driving home.
Then on Wednesday, April 23, when my mom and I got home from work we found my dad on the floor. I knew he was already gone. I called 911 and they told me to get him on his back and start compressions until the paramedics got there. I had just had my recertification of my CPR on March 31 so I knew what to do. I did the compressions until the paramedics got there who took over and worked on my dad for 30 minutes (which they wouldn’t have done if we had found his DNR but couldn’t find it). After the 30 minutes, they told us he was dead and had no heart rhythm the whole time they were there. The doctor later said that she believes he died from a massive heart attack. The sheriffs (we don’t have police in my town since it’s a small town so the county sheriff is our police) stayed until the mortuary people came to pick up my dad.
After everyone had left, my uncle came up from Santa Cruz that night to stay with my mom and I. We were hoping he would make it before they took my dad so he could see him (they are brothers) but he was just a little too late. I never expected to come home from work that day to find my dad not alive. The crazy thing is is that my dad never woke up before my mom and I left for work but that day he did and he got to see goodbye to us that morning. I feel like he knew something was going to happen. I’m so grateful for Easter Sunday though. I’m so glad my family got to see him and everyone said he looked so good. I mean my dad cooked us dinner Tuesday night. He was just at the doctor’s on Tuesday as well. His main doctor said he looked well too so everyone is surprised by this.
I took 10 days off from work and family came into town last week. On May 10, we had the services. It took a little longer than we had expected to do it but I didn’t realize that they can’t cremate a body until they have the death certificate. So on Saturday, there was 10 of us on the boat. It was beautiful, a little choppy, but still beautiful. Then we went to my Uncle’s house and had the rest of the family there as well. I would say there were about 30 people.
I still can’t believe he’s gone. Sometimes I feel like I’m going to come home and see him sitting in his chair watching TV but I know he went the way he wanted to go. He went quick and that’s what he would’ve wanted. Even his doctor said that he is a miserable patient (when it comes to staying in the hospital) and my dad knew that if it had happened when my mom and I were home, we would have done everything to make sure he was okay and he would’ve been in the hospital and that’s not what he would want. I miss him and love him so much and know he is with my Grandpa, and his two brothers, and Missy. He’s saving a spot for my mom and I too.
