Part 118 Special moments


My children accompany me to work at the start of the next week, laughing as I push them across the empty cafeteria floor on a cart used for transporting textbooks. Who needs amusement parks when you have such cool free entertainment? The dry and hot wave lingers for the next days. Brian and I do trainings at an elementary campus. Becah comes one day too, working with some of the teachers on a project. She brings Bree and Brooke, who arrived in hot pink shirts. I look at them all standing there and I am suddenly overcome with happiness that this is really my family. Becah later informs me that this day, June 16, is the anniversary of my stroke/TIA/accident. Ironically, it is also my friend Mike’s birthday. I must call him and do my part in keeping him from becoming a recluse.

Bree places fourth in freestyle, second in backstroke, and her relay team wins first in Saturday’s swim meet. Sunday is Father’s Day. After church we go out for yoghurt, which is special because I can actually eat it. We spend the afternoon at the pool. Brooke and I watch “Rings” on the couch. Our downstairs air conditioning unit starts acting up, so Becah and I join the kids sleeping upstairs at night.

A few days later I drive to the medical center, listening to music by Ivy, the Byrds, and Woody Carr, on the way to a meeting with Allison to discuss the surgery that is now just days away. She reviews the plan and answers any questions I have (which at this point, are actually very few). In reality I am probably just not wanting to think too much about it. Just give me the anesthesia and wake me when it’s over.

Real rain falls for the first time in a long while the following day. I spend the morning writing a report, then accompanying Becah on a few errands. She has a wrap for lunch at Jason’s Deli and I eat the soft serve ice cream. We find that Breanna has been invited to a special swim meet in July as a result of her impressive performance in previous meets. It is a big honor for her, and she is suitably pleased. I listen at home to excerpts on iTunes from the new Yes “Fly From Here” CD, and they sound great. It is the first album of new material in a long time. What a treat!

Saturday June 25 we watch Bree swim in the divisional races in Tomball at the high school. It has been many years since I have been here, and I have some trouble finding the spot. Everything looks different since I worked in this district. Bree finishes second in relay (the fastest heat) and second in her group (eighth out of 49 in all) for freestyle. I am proud of her. As a child, I played many sports, but never felt like I excelled in them as my daughter does.

I attend church the next day, the morning before the big event. Afterward, in the sanctuary, the children sing in a program.

In the afternoon, I reflect on all that I have endured for the past year and a half. I have one more step to go. It will be a major one. I am not particularly scared, but have some apprehension when I consider the seriousness of what tomorrow’s surgery represents. I go into this knowing, though, that I really have no other choice. I could conceivably live the rest of my days getting nutrition from a tube in my stomach, occasionally tasting real food orally if I can squeeze it through my esophagus. But I want a more normal life. I want to share meals with my family, like all the other life events. I am aware of the risks. I am not a gambler, and I feel that what I am doing is sensible.

It is late now and time to go to sleep. Soon this will be over.