October

October. Easily one of my favorite months. It means hot days have been ushered out to make room for cooler days and warm clothes. It brings the excitement of Halloween with it. It means apple cider and candy apples. Pumpkin carving and Facebook posts filled with awful pumpkin spice recipes. Sweaters and boots. Scarves and my favorite, dark lipsticks! I love fall. It is the change that I desperately long for after an agonizingly hot summer on the Midwest.
But this year is different. This year I'm not driving down my parents street visioning the street being full of children dressed up, going door to door for candy. This year I'm driving down my Mom's street counting down the days until it's been a year since he left us. Hell, I've been counting down the days til October knowing that it would bring feelings that have been festering at the surface.
Today, October 2nd is exactly a year since I left for Little Rock. Exactly a year since my father was put in ICU and exactly a year since I realized the last time I had ever seen my Father happy without tubes in his body and in his own home, was the last time I ever would see those things. Those days were gone and they would never be back. It has now been a year since I left the room to gather myself because the man in front of me was not my father, at least not the one I had in mind when I left for my flight that day. He was sick. Very, very sick. And even if he got better, he wouldn't be the same. Did I hope for a miracle, sure. But I had already been jaded by the cancerous world we had lived in for so long now.
We did have a few moments of laughter here and there that acted like a pair of scissors to cut up the tension in the room. At one point we were talking to Dad and he started staring off into the hallway with a bewildered look on his face. When I asked him what he was looking at he said there was a camel in the hallway.
I looked and saw a stairwell door right across the hall and said, "oh Dad, I see what you're talking about. It's a door. It is big and about the same color as a camel, though!" Then he looks at me and says in an annoyed tone, "Rachel, I know there's a door, the camel just opened it to go down the stairs." Ha. What do you say to that? The man saw the camel go down the stairs! Can't argue with that!
That moment of laughter was a great way to end the evening. The next day proved to be much worse.
Kobe and I woke up, got around and stopped at Dunkin Donuts to grab breakfast. While we waited for our food, we got a phone call saying we needed to get to the hospital ASAP. We left with no food or coffee and sped off to find Dad hooked up to a machine forcing him to breathe. It was awful. The mask forced in air while he tried to fight it. This caused him to essentially choke on his own breath. I remember he looked so defeated. He looked like he wanted to fight the machine because he wanted to keep his dignity and breathe on his own. After just a short amount of time doctors decided they needed to intubate him. We left the room to find to come back and find our Dad in a medically induced coma. It was at that moment that I wasn't sure if I would ever hear my Dad's voice again. That was the day that we had to decide if we wanted to sign a DNR. That was the day that we had to decide if he could have a certain medicine to help him but that could cause him to go into cardiac arrest.
The next day would be the day that we sat there waiting for any sign that he might wake up, but none came.
The next two weeks are going to be filled with memories of a year ago. Each day will represent a bittersweet victory or a tough decision. They will remind me of a time when I was able to stand next to my Dad's side and talk to him, even if he couldn't respond. Each day will bring heartache back and an eerie feeling of past foreshadowing, if that makes sense. It's hard to believe that this month there will be one day that I think, Dad was alive a year ago, and the next day I will think, the worst day of my life was exactly a year ago. It will be hard to get through this month as each day is a reminder of what was to come. But if I could get through living it a year ago, I can get through remembering it this year. Ugh. October.

Guilty Goodbye's

I remember waving goodbye to my Mom and Dad as they left for Little Rock. There was so much excitement in the air. Dad was weak and frail, and he would return home the same way, but he'd be cured. A trip to Hawaii would be in his future, with my mom by his side. There would be road trips to Topeka to eat at Noble House to hold him over until they left for the islands. We would celebrate another birthday of his grandchild's. And one day he would see his other daughter have a baby as well. Some day he would see my brother wait at the alter while his beautiful bride came walking towards him. There were so many promises hanging in the air. It was a great day knowing that the moment they left the driveway was the moment  that began our lives changing for the better.
I remember another good-bye, too. This time it was when I was leaving Little Rock. The previous weeks had been hell. Us kids were receiving updates from our Mom that were anything but welcomed. We hadn't gotten word that the measles had worked, in fact, they hadn't. Our last option was a bust. All our hopes were handed back to us in the form of a crude middle finger. After that news came the update that Dad had been taken to the hospital because he was having a hard time breathing. Mom sounded confident that it wasn't a big deal. Then pneumonia set in which was followed by staph and something else that were all in his blood stream. Things just kept getting worse and worse. As all of this was going on Taylor and Kobe were in Little Rock helping Mom out. Finally my turn came to go. All of the updates had seemed dismal but we kept our faith. The day of my flight out to LR Mom called me. Dad had been placed in ICU. He was hallucinating and going downhill really fast. Kobe was there with her and was supposed to be coming home, but he stayed. Taylor and Jerick were already on their way. I'll save the details of those 10 days for another time, but they were far from joyous. Don't get me wrong, there was no where else I'd rather be. I needed to be there with the rest of my family while my Dad fought hard to hold on, but it was so damn hard watch.
At one point Mom had told us that Dad had said he was going to die that day. It seemed like such a strange thing to say that I took it as truth. When midnight came and went I think we all breathed a sigh of relief that he was wrong. It was, I think, two days later that we left. Dad was awake and alert. He could talk, although it was hard to discern what he was saying. But at least we knew he could hear us telling him we loved him and that he could nod back and mumble that he loved us, too. Saying good bye that day was insanely hard to do. We had seen him come out of his coma, which was uplifting, but he was far from health and closer to death. As I said good-bye I had the feeling it was the last time I would ever see him. Even thought I felt that way I fought the idea of it. Acknowledging it felt like saying I didn't believe he could be healed. I felt guilty for thinking it. I felt like a horrible daughter for allowing such an idea cross my mind. How morbid of me to accept that he would die soon. So, I pushed the idea away and tried to not make too big of a deal of my goodbyes. My thoughts still bothered me and I kind of lingered and stood at the door longer than I planned on but something told me I would never see him after that. Finally, I dismissed the idea and left the room and we headed home to Salina. That was, in fact, the last time I ever saw my Dad. But it wasn't the last time I said good-bye.
The last time I actually said goodbye to my Dad was over the phone. Mom and I had been making plans all day to get Dad home. We knew it wouldn't be much longer so we wanted him to be home for his last moments. In a few short hours friends and strangers of our family had raised $10,000 to have him flown home on a medivac. Mom talked to all the people she needed to only to be informed that he probably wouldn't survive the drive to the airport where the helicopter would pick him up. More phone calls were made and it was evident that Dad's body had just about had all that it could humanly handle. So, my brother and I were to leave that night to Little Rock. No one was certain how long we had. I think my Mom knew. They were apart of each other, so of course she knew. But I still couldn't give up hope. I needed him to make it out of this. He was my Dad and I would never give up on him. (And I don't mean in any way that my Mom gave up, I just think her life was watching him slowly die, so she knew in her heart that it was time for him to let go and not be in pain anymore. And she knew that that was what he wanted, and as a spouse of someone else, all you want is for them to be happy even if it means letting go.)
After talking to her all I could think of was getting to LR as soon as I could. My uncle was on his way and the sooner he got there the more time I had with my Dad. He had texted me to let me know he was there. As I was walking out the door my Mom called me. She asked if there was anything I wanted to say to Dad. She had the phone up to his ear and said he could hear me but couldn't speak. I should have known then, but I felt guilty again so I kind of blew it off. I told him I loved him and I was on my way and that I would be by his side soon to tell him in person how much I loved him. She told me to tell all the kids to talk to him. They all told him they loved him. I rushed it, though. I told Mom I had to go because Uncle Craig was outside and I really wanted to get on the road. She sounded upset and told me to tell Dad anything I needed to say to him and not worry about getting on the road. Even after she said that I still rushed my words and said good-bye. A few minutes later we were on the road to Little Rock. Less than an hour later my Mom called me to tell me that my Dad was gone. All I can think now is that the last time I spoke to him my words weren't comforting or full of love, they were rushed and ignorant of reality.

We Are All Strong

Yesterday my best friend had to say good-bye to someone she loved. It came with no warning. Her uncle was here one minute and gone the next. I can't even fathom having someone you care about so deeply leave this world forever for no apparent reason. It just baffles me.
I've talked to so many people who have lost a loved one from a car wreck, or heart attack, or a freak accident and they all say they don't think that they could have done what I did. They couldn't have watched someone suffer and fight, to slowly lose at a visible rate. And I admit, it was hard, it's still hard to think about. To think that the last time I saw my Dad he was so weak and so frail, and he barely resembled my himself. Sometimes I wish for a brief second that I didn't see him like that. That I didn't have to see him hooked up to all those machines, tubes, and meds. I think about when they left for Little Rock. He was so small, and so fragile, but he could still walk and breathe on his own. He could still eat food with a fork and not a tube. I wrote a blog a while back about how much he had changed and how sick he had gotten. I would give anything in the world to have had the last time I had seen him be like he was when I wrote that. That was nothing compared to what we all saw as he sat in ICU. I hope my friends never have to see someone they love the way I saw my Father those last few precious days. But I know that I am so thankful I had those moments and didn't have to say good-bye in shock and in bewilderment. I'm not strong or brave for handling my Dad's sickness, and ultimately his death, with composure. And my friends are not weak for handling their sudden losses with overwhelming grief. I don't even know if I could handle it if my Dad had left us from something so sudden. Yes, he was sick. Yes, it was hard, but we knew his days were coming to an end and we made sure we said everything we needed to and spent our time together. No matter the circumstance we are all dealing with grief. Mine was spread out over a few years. My friends' all came at once. Neither one is fair. Death isn't fair. Death is a tremendous blow to your soul no matter what way it was delivered. We have all lost someone, and we are all strong for dealing with it in whatever way our hearts could handle.