Blessings

If you follow this blag, you’ll already know my Dad, Walter Maheux, is in the hospital right now. He’s got a large tumor in one lung, and spots in his lungs, liver, lymph nodes and brain. He also had pneumonia, but I think that’s almost over.

Let me be frank: this is it. This is his swan song. I’m not sure he can recover from this.

But I have hope. And there are blessings. And in many ways my brother (Bill), mother (Dottie), and I feel like we’re lucky. Because now I think we can have some good time with my Dad. What they call quality time.

My blessings, let me show you them:

• It is a blessing that, when my father was driving erratically with my mother and dogs in the truck, no one was hurt. Not even the truck.
• It is a blessing that my mother convinced my father to stop driving and go to the doctors to find out what was happening.
• It is a blessing that the physician’s assistant ordered an x-ray for my father.
• It is a blessing that the doctor called my Mom the next day and asked them to go into the doctor’s office.
• It is a blessing that my mother saw my father cough up and vomit blood.
• It is a blessing that my father coughed up and vomited blood at the doctor’s office and they sent him directly (do not pass go) to the emergency room.
• It is a blessing that my brother and I both work at places that let us leave work immediately so we could meet our parents at the hospital.
• It is a blessing too that our places of work also gave us both time away to spend supporting my Mom and Dad as well as to help come to grips with what was happening.
• It is a blessing that I have a husband (Edmund) who is ready with hugs, jokes and love whenever I need it.
• It is a blessing that Edmund doesn’t mind letting the dogs out so we can stay at the hospital.
• It is a blessing that we all have wicked senses of humor and try to find something to laugh about at every opportunity.
• It is a blessing that once we got the word out about Dad’s illness, he had visits from friends and relatives right away with more coming.
• It is a blessing that the staff at the Maine Medical Center is caring for us all with compassion, tact and a bit of humor.
• It is a blessing that we have a tool like Facebook that we can use to keep our extended families informed about Dad’s progress and prognoses.

And the biggest blessing is that my father looks and acts like he is feeling the best he has in months. This gives me the most hope of all.