 | bye, daddy. |
Three years ago today, around 2pm, I watched the color from my dad’s face dissappear. it was a Monday. I held his left hand in my left hand. I almost got sick at how he changed colors so fast and drastically. J’aime, Serah, and Robbie were in the room too, but I’m not sure which ones were watching too. A week before, almost to the hour, he found out he had a brain tumor. He went into surgery that Friday, and never woke up afterward.
I’m going to recount the first night I went to see my dad, but only what I directly experience, and only what happened that night.
.J’aime had called me from the hospital that Tuesday before and said that daddy wanted to talk to me. I talked to him briefly and said that i’d come down to see him. I didn’t right away. It wasn’t until a day later when J’aime called me and said she needed me to come down right away that i actually went down. I ran down to Mercy hospital since it was only a mile or so from my apartment. Turns out, Robbie was trying to marry my dad, and that was a lot of emotion, at a very emotional time.
I got tried to get some alone time with my dad to talk about whether or not he wanted this. The tumor had been causing him to forgot things and say things that didn’t make sense, and he just seemed out of it. I said, "So, i hear something about you and robbie getting married, do you want that to happen?" He immediately went from a dopey happy face to an embarrassed child’s face that knows he did something wrong. He slumped down a little and looked away and said, "Oh. I don’t know." I only had a minute or so before some guy that knew daddy came in and sat down to interrupt us. then Sarah Slavic came in too. I didn’t get what time I wanted, but it was enough for me to know that it was out of the question to let talks of marriage continue.
Robbie had gathered all her relatives in the chapel downstairs. They came with a ring and they were expecting a cermony. I hadn’t talked to her family for quite a few years, but I always loved and missed them. Robbie’s brother-in-law, Scott, was one of them that I felt I could really connect with because he just had a very easy going personality and was religious. J’aime and I asked Scott if we could talk to him about what’s going to happen. The 3 of us went into a room and talked very calmly about it. J’aime and I said that there was no reason to rush this decision, they’ve had 7 years to get married and they never were able to comit to eachother then. We said that he is not in any state of mind to make such a life changing decision, that not only affects him but everyone, ESPECIALLY if he died. Scott said that we shouldn’t deny Robbie the chance to marry someone that she loved. We failed to see eye to eye on the topic, which was shocking to J’aime and I because of how obvious the right choice seemed.
Robbie called for a Catholic priest she had been familiar with to marry them. The priest wanted to meet with my dad before hand, as he always did, to make sure the two people want to unite. As he did that, we called my dad’s best friend, Bruce, and let him know to come down. I called my step-grand father, an attorney, and asked him what we’re allowed to do legally to stop this, or if we can’t what are we looking at in terms of the estate, life insurance, and anything else if my father dies and they are married. It wasn’t pretty. (but honestly, neither is what ended up happening anyway)
The priest came out and said that my father seemed very lucid but that my dad simply seemed like he didnt know if he wanted to marry Robbie, and on that ground, he wouldn’t marrry them. Honestly, we all chuckled a bit at the relieve because the priest called my dad lucid. As Robbie went to tell her family there would be no wedding, Serah and I went in with my dad. This is where "Mr. Lucid" pointed to his IV and asked me if I knew what was in it. I think i said something along the lines of, "the good stuff, I’m sure." He said, and I’ll try to quote this as best as I can, "The mon valley express way. they point it in there and it flows from here (points to bag) to here (points to forearm). heh, i’m tearfully laughing here…wow dad, you really loved that express way.
A few minutes later, we were watching something on the TV and it hinted the mentioning of this dutch colony in the middle of the state somewhere. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of it now. But as he talked about it, I remembered going there as a kid in kindergarten. I remember seeing their bread ovens. I remember riding on the bus there. I remember putting the wood bar that held pales of cow milk on either end on my shoulders. A rush of these childhood memories came to me, that I don’t think i ever thought about until that moment. It was quite overwhelming and refreshing, that these memories were coming to me, but not only that, but that my dad was reconnecting me to them. how Ironic, the man that forced me to block out so much of my childhood was helping me remember some.
When it came time to leave, everyone hugged daddy and told him that they loved him. I wasn’t ready for that, because I expected him to come through that surgery fine, and I didn’t want him to think this was an open door to my life once he got better. I waiting until last and just smiled at him and said, "hey, take care of yourself, I’ll see you this weekend when you get out."
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