A Beautiful Death - Part 5

My Daddy died at 5:00am on Thursday, September 20, 2012.

Grandpa reading Green Eggs & Ham to Olivia, age 3 - 2008

Kisses from Grandpa - 2008

Continued from Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4

September 9, 2012 - 5:00pm

Daddy made it through surgery. We thoroughly celebrated this victory. His surgeon told us that it had gone even better than he had expected. No obvious complications. The only way to tell if his brain had been damaged was to keep him sedated overnight, and bring him out of the sedation in the morning. We had to see if his cognitive abilities were functioning. We just needed him to communicate, even if it was just writing. He could not speak due to the ventilator. Another "wait and see". He made it through the day, we couldn't ask for more than that. We left him to rest with whispers of love and strength. 

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Growing up, I loved animals. LOVED them. (still do) I would beg to live on a farm. He would laugh and tolerate my menagerie of beloved pets. He certainly wasn't very fond of them. About 8 years ago, my step-brother joined the Navy and needed someone to take care of his chihuahua. I NEVER thought my Daddy would go for that! Somehow, my Mom worked her charm and they adopted her. She reminded them of the Taco Bell dog, of course and named her "Chuppie"...short for "Chalupa". :) She became his best friend, his loyal companion. She is 16 now and taking care of my Mom. 

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The detour from the story of my Daddy's death is to explain the gift that I found for him, while he was in surgery. I wandered the quite upscale gift shop. The nightgowns for sale were Oscar De La Renta and Chanel. I was sporadically crying, just looking for SOMETHING he might like. Nothing. Until, I saw the stuffed dogs. They did not have Chihuahuas of course. The polite volunteer asked if I needed any assistance. I said, "I am guessing you don't have any Chihuahuas in the back..." She set off to scour the back to fulfill my emotional, teary request. In what seemed like merely seconds later, she appeared with the dog. "I had no idea we had these. I have not seen them before. Is this what you wanted?" I hugged her (of course) and almost jumped up and down. It may have just been a stuffed dog, but to me...it was a miracle. 

  

This was the day. The miracles, beauty, everything unexpected, began to happen. I had no idea what was in store for us. I didn't feel the need to that night, walking out of the hospital. He had made it through surgery. I found him a twin dog that IS allowed in the hospital, that the manager had never seen. 
Those were miracles to me. I knew we had more in store for us. I had the most important thing...HOPE.

I fell asleep that night praying that he would communicate in the morning. I wanted my Daddy back and I could actually feel it happening. I begged God, to spare him, to heal him. I prayed more than I had in my whole life. I suppose that is what witnessing miracles will do.

Part 6 to come soon....