On October 3 Jonah and I went over to see my dad and let him hold Addie for a little bit. He wasn't feeling well and I knew Addie would light up his day, little did I know how important that night would be to me for the rest of my life. On Tuesday, around 10:30, I received a text message from my father stating, "911." By the time I had called him the EMS had arrived for him and was transporting him to the hospital. My mother and I went to the hospital and waited for information on what was going on and how he was. We finally went back to see him and things were not looking good... They transported him to ICU, where I spoke to the doctor and nurses to get an understanding on what was truly going on. I called my sister about 5:30 to let her know she needed to come home... the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
That evening we had to make the decision to call my brother to come home or not... it didn't take long before we made the call. We are so thankful to the Red Cross and his command on getting him home by that Thursday night. Friday morning we all met together at the hospital to talk to the doctors and decide on the next steps to take.
We decided to go ahead and move dad out of ICU and off life support. By Friday afternoon they had him comfortable and my grandmother came in to see him. We had all three grandchildren; James, Myra, and Addie; come and see him. It made me tear up when James said, "I love you, Pa."
On Monday my mother called my brother about 9:45am to let us know Dad had passed away... my heart tore apart. We went to the hospital, where Jonah met me there, and we said our final "goodbyes." On Friday we had a beautiful memorial for him and celebrated his life at Flying Saucer. I will forever miss my daddy but have the wonderful memories of being a "daddy's girl" and him meeting his little girl's little girl.
Addie has the pictures and will grow up knowing how much her Pa truly treasured her and that the last time he held her gave him a little more life to hang onto. Heck, maybe a little piece of her Pa will show up in her personallity. She is not only a blessing to us but God blessed my dad with her right before he was called home... for that I am truly grateful!
