Hospitals

As I sat in my dad’s room at St. Joe’s I know that a part of life is dealing with sickness and pain. I had little idea after my mom’s death what it would be like to become my dad’s friend, advocate and caregiver. As a kid growing up it was easy to take advantage of a very generous dad who seldom ever said no. I am still puzzled when it came to my educational choices and my selection of a wife that my dad didn’t say much beside, “She must be great if you love her or anything you will do in school you would be successful.)

Yesterday we had planned a day away in Flagstaff to take my niece, nephew and my daughter and son away. I had decided to do something a little spontaneous because of other commitments during the weekend. So I surfed on the net to see whether the old Embassy Suites had good prices on bigger rooms for a group of six. I can remember staying here a few times when our older daughter was at NAU. I ribbed my son a little about his messing around with some of the other teens when we stayed there.

We had planned to hike through the Lava Cave outside of Flagstaff. I had gotten weather updates from my son-in-law about the forecast of torrential rains and the potential for flooding. My wife wanted to ignore the reports and still push to go to the Caves. I tried to explain that rain and dirt roads don’t mix very well. We all gave in after our 3-hour drive to Flagstaff and lunch to look for these Lava Tunnels. We had done this trip a few times so I assumed we would find the dirt road relatively easy. The sad news, for at least Anne, is that it started to rain and we couldn’t find the secret road to get us to the Lava Caves.

We come back to Flag and the hotel and then decided to see the Riordan House. I had searched the net and found a list of free things to do in Flag. We pulled up and because of the weather and the football fans being drawn to the Cardinals the place was empty. The store clerk immediately reminded us, that they only took 15 on the tour and that we should pay to reserve our spaces. After discovering this wasn’t free my son questioned whether this was a wise investment. I paid so it didn’t matter. As we walked around this historic house of gigantic proportions I knew that I might receive a call from my dad’s group homeowner. She was concerned that grandpa’s fever hadn’t broken and that he was excessively coughing all of the time.

I didn’t know what to do? Speed home and give up an already paid for hotel room for 6? Go eat dinner and then decide or just leave. As my son-in-law predicted the rains started to come. The last thing I really wanted to do was drive back to Phoenix and miss out on a little get away. Yet, all of us knew that Grandpa needed us and that it wasn’t wise to be away when something might happen and the doctors might need to reach me. So we loaded up the van after eating at the Bun Hugger and got home around 9:30 pm. I quickly helped unload then took off in my truck.

I was pleased to see grandpa sleeping in his room. He did cough a little but did recognize me and as usual asked how I was doing. I asked him the same and he quickly replied, “Great”. I replied just as quick with, “I don’t think so – did you forget that you are in the hospital?”

I stayed for an hour and just watched him and prayed for God’s peace and protection to be on him.  As I left I was reminded that a necessary part of my life would be spent sitting with my dad and being a friend and a son whether it is in good times or bad times. So I quickly let go of my anger or resentment about walking away from a hotel room and missing out on hiking in a dark cave.