Eight Years: An Only Childs Journey

Posted by Lew on March 22, 2009

Hi and thanks so much for returning to my blog. RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Preface; If You missed my first post you can catch up and read it here…

Being an only child has it’s own set of Rewards and challenges to face.

Of course the rewards are the usual things such as always being the center of your parents universe ( at least when your younger ) not having to share a bedroom with a sibling or toys and other gifts for that matter.

Larger helpings of food ( not something I ever had a real problem with anyway as anyone in my family can vouch for )

And the challenges that are associated with being an only child include some of the following..

• Not being able to blame a sibling when you get into trouble.
• Being the only one caught in the middle when there is an argument between both parents
• And what is probably the most important…having to be the ONLY ONE to deal with serious Parental Care and Quality Of Life Issues pertaining to Health and Welfare.

Please note..the last bullet point listed above is what these posts will be focusing upon…

The year 2001 started out like the previous year, except that we did not travel too Brooklyn that year. New Years Day fell out on a Monday of that year. We went back to the daily grind that Tuesday, and so of course we had a short work week. I remember making plans with some friends including a new friend named Ken Beecher who I’d made friends with though my job. I didn’t know it back then, but Ken would wind up playing a pivital role in my life throughout most of what would happen.

That Saturday, we all got together at my home in Middletown to play ” Magic The Gathering ” a Collectible Card Game, and it was the usual folks who was there including Ken Beecher. My wife Sue was home on this particular weekend and as I look back on that weekend, I am really grateful for that one little thing.

It was just a few minutes after midnight when the phone in our Kitchen started to ring…Always Remember that if your Kitchen Phone rings after midnight…it’s usually not a good thing…it was my Mother’s voice on the other end of the phone…” Lewis, I called an ambulance for your father…I’m taking him to Horton Hospital…”

I can’t remember what my first thought was at that moment was, I do remember that I was trying to do several things all at once…apologizing to my friends, telling Sue what was going on, and then getting into my car and heading to Horton Hospital…I had no idea at this point in time that this would be the first of many Hospital Trips and not just to Horton Hospital either…

My father had suffered a severe asthma attack.

I want to point out a few factors about my father’s health at this time…

• My father had always been a ” Heavy Cigarette Smoker ” who had tried to quit over the years with no success
• His Cigarette smoking had created a few issues with his lungs including Emphysema and Bronchial Asthma
• His ” Lung Capacity ” over the years had become pretty bad due to the above problems

I’m not sure if I beat the ambulance to the hospital as I just happen to live up the street from it, which can at times be a pretty convenient thing, or if the ambulance got there a head of me.

I do remember running into the emergency room to find my mother and father…and my father not being in Emergency…he was already being taken up to ICU..the Intensive Care Unit..

I remember thinking to myself ” what the hell is going on ?”