The past week I observed this strength in both forms....I watched as my papaw fought for his life. It wasn't easy to see, but I am grateful I got to be there for him, for my mother, and for my family. I am also grateful that I got to say "I love you Papaw" before he passed beyond this life.
MY PAPAW WAS THE DEFINITION OF STRENGTH, DETERMINATION AND TOUGH!
Papaw was a cowboy! I use to always tell him that he reminded me of John Wayne! He was handsome, worked hard and although he wasn't "book educated" he was the smartest man I've ever met. He NEVER met a problem he couldn't fix! His response sometimes was "Well, Baby, I don't know how to do that, but we sure will figure it out!"
He was blessed with tons of grandsons who loved being outdoors with him! Going fishing up at his river camp, hunting and so forth! He was blessed with only three granddaughters! Kelly, Me and Brooke. One of the best memories I have of him is taking us on a girls weekend at his river camp to spend the night and go fishing with him! Just us and our papaw!
16 years ago he battled cancer... we all though we were going to lose him then but if there was ever a determined man (or hard headed) it was Papaw! We were blessed to have him for 16 more years!
He had this dog named Red! Red went everywhere with Papaw! The story is Red was Mamaw's dog....She came to Arizona when I was born and left Red at home. It didn't take long for Red to realize Papaw was out having fun hunting rabbits ans squirl's and he decided to be Papaw's dog...LOL!... Red died of cancer, it about broke my Papaw's heart.
He had a heart attack, it was a roller coaster ride for him and everyone involved... He flat lined on the way to the hospital for 15 minutes, but they revived him. They preformed open heart surgery with only a 10% chance that he would make it through it, HE DID. His kidneys shut down they put him on dialysis, He got pnemonia.. one thing right after another. BUT Things started looking up! His kidneys started working again and they took him of of dialysis, He started opening his eyes... and then he got sepsis. It's a nasty infection with a 60% mortality rate.... The infection was so bad that his kidneys shut down again and they couldn't put him back on dialysis.... My mom and my uncles had to make the decision to turn off the machines, because there was nothing more the doctors could do... It was heartbreaking to watch them make that decision and to say goodbye to their father.
EVERYONE of his grandchildren (aside from one) came to see him in the hospital. Even my cousin flew in from Italy. It was obvious that he was very loved! But then who better to love then the man who taught you how to love.
GOD BE WITH YOU TIL WE MEET AGAIN PAPAW!
No comments:
Post a Comment