My intuition to miss the rally and head to Pgh to be with my parents was right on....after spending a nice day with my dad and mom on Saturday, and heading back (getting as far as the Harrisburg area)...I was called back to Pgh when my dad was taken to the hospital early Sunday morning in respiratory failure. He spent Sunday and Monday morning on a ventilator (pretty hard for me seeing him like that)...got the tube out Monday at noon, looked ok, we had a long father-daughter chat Monday afternoon. Monday evening when I went back to visit he had a stroke. Told me his arm was heavy and he couldn't move his fingers. You can imagine how I felt. Downhill from there. Wednesday morning the doctors called me to ask how far I wanted to go for him because they believed he was very sick from lung disease and his stroke, and he would not recover. I made the decision to just keep him comfortable and take each moment at a time. I was able to bring my mom in (not in good health either)..and he knew her and said "I love you" and she said "I love you too." Wow. They talked a little bit, she stayed 4 1/2 hours, and she was tired. He said to take mom home...so my kids took her back home. After that he slept and was unresponsive. I spent the night Wednesday, all day Thursday, and prepared to spend Thursday night too. It was just him and me, music, and quiet time of memories and tears...I told him he needed to go...that I would not leave him.... and he began to quietly slip away around 10p...by 11:45p his heart had finally stopped.
I was where I needed to be, and I thank God he was pain-free and slept his way into heaven.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.
Cheryl
