This is a picture of my parents a week ago from today saying goodbye to each other before my dad got on a plane. I give my parents 100% of the credit for helping me become the person that I am today and love them so much for it.
For those of you that don’t already know, our mother had open heart surgery on Tuesday afternoon. She was having some chest pains on Sunday and after a trip to the hospital and some tests they found that she had blockages in her coronary arteries and informed us that she needed quadruple bypass surgery as soon as possible. This is a pretty serious surgery and anyone who knows my mother also knows that she is relatively shy when it comes to doctors and medicine.
Also, for those of you that don’t know, our father is in Kenya right now visiting my older brother Seth. While I understand he has gotten to do a lot and it’s been an amazing trip, I don’t think his vacation has been as relaxing as I had initially expected.
Despite all of this, our mother is progressing wonderfully. The surgery went very well and she is improving much faster than the staff expected. She has been so strong and so brave throughout the entire process. We’ve spent pretty much the entire past four days at the hospital and have been passing on everyone’s well wishes. Everyone’s thoughts and prayers mean a lot to her and every time she hears that someone came by or that someone called it cheers her up. Right now, really the only thing she feels like doing in sleeping but we imagine in the next couple days she will be able to have visitors and take phone calls.
The past couple of days has really put life into perspective for all of us and has really shown us how important family is. This is a very hard thing to go through but I believe that not only will this improve a lot of our lifestyle decisions in the future but it has already made us a closer and stronger family.
I encourage anyone who reads this to tell a family member that you love them today. Whether it’s your Mother you say it to every day or your Father you don’t say it to enough, tell them you love them because you never know what tomorrow may bring.