I Am Thankful for Family

Of all the holidays, Thanksgiving is my favorite. Somehow it has managed to escape the over commercialization of Christmas, the faux good cheer of New Year’s Eve, depressing loneliness of St. Valentine’s Day and all the nauseating patriotism wrapped around July 4th, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day and any other day commemorating a war or a dead president.

Thanksgiving is the three F’s, food, family and football (ok, maybe some of you only care about two, but you get the point). You travel, or people travel to you, and you sit around in each other’s company eating and hopefully having a good time. That’s the plan anyway.

This year, in addition to myself, one of my brothers and his family came up from Baltimore to make the trip home. I got to spend time with his three kids, all teenagers or getting there. The oldest is off to college next year, he thinks to study engineering like his father, and is considering schools like Columbia, Duke and Princeton. Grade-wise he can go anywhere he likes, but my brother winces at the price tags of those schools. He better earn scholarships.

The middle child, two years younger than his brother, is in full teenager mode. Prone to sleeping, eating and general indifference about most things, he’s still finding himself. Bright but as yet unfocused. He’ll get there.

Their youngest child is the only female in our next generation but she keeps up with her brothers even despite a broken leg. Crutches and all she tagged along where ever they went and doesn’t take to being picked on.

So the time away was generally pleasant and benign, until Friday around midday. Then Dad had a seizure. He has had these mini-strokes before, in fact another time previously when I was home in July. We had to rush him to the hospital then where he stayed for three days under observation.

This time he had come out of the bathroom disoriented and confused. He’s 82 and has Alzheimer’s, so that is not that unusual, but then he began to slump over and my brother and I helped him to a chair. That’s when he went slack and passed out. My brother tried to revive him but he was unresponsive for quite awhile, perhaps five minutes in all. You know how you try to maintain a calm demeanor, when inside you’re just scared shitless? Well this was one of those moments. The entire episode seemed to be going in slow motion.

I called 911 who immediately dispatched paramedics who arrived while we were still on the phone. Providing oxygen, they were able to resuscitate him and he became somewhat more alert, but they insisted he be taken to the hospital. Mom rode along in the ambulance, and I drove down shortly afterwards.

Unlike in July when the wait seemed interminably long and he was anxious and irritable the whole time, he got prompt treatment and maintained his spirits. They did a variety of tests and X-rays to check heart and brain functions. Ultimately a CAT scan turned up blood in the brain, and his own physician recommended he be kept overnight. I’m compressing seven and a half hours into a few sentences, but after he was admitted and settled in his room, he was actually quite alert. We fed him and tried to get him oriented, but when we tried to leave he tried to follow us, so the nurse has him in a jacket with straps that tie him to the bed. I hope that doesn’t upset him.

So on this Thanksgiving weekend, I give thanks to the fact that I have had an opportunity to spend another holiday with my family, all of whom I love very much, and I cherish how ever many more times like this we have together.