On Hearts, Hospital Food and the Kansas Wind

Its been a whirlwind week. My beautiful wife™ and I found out that my 83 year old grandfather would be having double bypass heart surgery last Monday. By Tuesday, it was decided that the procedure would be before the week was out. Wednesday we loaded up the family truckster and drove nearly 740 miles. Thursday we spent with the grandparents enjoying one another, easing nerves and eating.

Friday was the big day. Grandpa went in at 7am, they started 6 hours later, and by 5:30, there was a good report that Grandpa was doing well, headed to the ICU. He slept thru the night. Saturday, he was awake and talking – a little hoarse due to the breathing tube down his throat, but chatting up a storm to whomever would walk into his room.

Sunday, we reloaded the family truckster, added another 740 miles to the odometer. It’s good to be home. (The humor in this: We travel again in 9 days back to my grandparents for our huge family Christmas celebration – hopefully Grandpa will be up for it!)

Here are some random thoughts and observances I made over this last week:

• A short conversation:

Grandpa, sitting in his huge recliner, to Grandma: ‘If I make it to December 13th it will be 22,630 days, 13 hours and 17 minutes we’ve been married. I just added it up. Oh – Is it 62 or 63 years?’
Grandma, sitting across from him in her huge recliner, in the front room: ’63.’
Grandpa, with a “doh” look on his face: ‘…Oh no, I only counted 62 – add 365 days to that!’

• The use of the words “blessing” and “thankful”. I have not heard my family use those terms often. Ours is a family that historically didn’t do the ‘church thing’, but it seems that God will use many situations to draw people close to Him

• The dedication of a woman to a man – by his side, wanting to be there at his bedside…yet though she wants to be there, she has to take care of herself so she can be strong for his recovery

• Kansas winters are different than Tennessee winters. I forget. 40 in Kansas is hellish because of the wide open flatness that are “the plains”. Everything is brown and windblown. The wind cuts right to your soul. It also causes ear infections and sore throats.

• …Which is also why we don’t usually stay with the grandparents when we go see them during the Christmas season. They love it –as my son would say– SUPER HOT in their house.  Then we walk outside and its freezing. Can you say – “Hello sickness!”

• Prayer. Lots of Prayer. Grandpa asking everyone for prayer. He enjoyed Grandma telling him of people who had called expressing they were going to pray for him

• There was a moment I walked into the front room in my grandparents house and it was like two teenagers in the room. Grandma was on her cell phone talking, and grandpa was on the house phone. Both talking about the surgery to their friends. It made me smile.

• Warm Fuzzy: The visits by the Pastor and his wife, by their friends from the church…the sincerity of the husband who said – “we love these two – they are special people” – as he looked at my Grandma and Grandpa in the hospital.

• Another Warm Fuzzy: The outpouring of my friends who asked about my grandpa and his surgery – who prayed for him (thank you!)

• Hospital food: Good and Cheap. A great cheap date! I’m only half kidding.

• I noticed the desire for community — My Mom wanted people who had been thru the surgery, or knew someone who had gone to the surgery to tell her about it…to ease her stress. The hours we filled in the solitary yellow waiting room, making conversation, waiting for a phone call or a visit by the Doctor to let us know how Grandpa was doing. The frequent posting to Facebook by me, my mom and sister – asking for support and prayer… We all long for community – and for people to share our burdens (or experiences) with – yet we distance ourselves so easily.

• Psalm 121 kept going thru my mind:

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

photo by Thomas Hawk