Angels Among Us- Part 1

I HAVE to tell this story so the angels among us hear me thank them. I want them to know how valuable they are and the acts of service did not go unnoticed.

In a blink of an eye my husband was on his motorcycle riding in front of my son then suddenly face down on the concrete driveway only 100 feet from our garage. He had put on his riding boots but not his helmet, of course we all say WHAT???  But it is in that instant that we have ALL made THAT one choice to drink and drive, have unprotected sex, or speed in a school zone that could change the course of our lives. It's called an accident, not planned or premeditated but a sudden and possibly tragic moment, a flash of time.

He rode by and said hello to a friend right around the corner from our house passing him only seconds before his accident. Slowly driving over the bridge toward our garage as our 9 year son watched him lose control of the bike and then frantically trying to regain control of the bike, it slid out from under him sliding to the left as he went to the right. The blow to the head knocked him immediately unconscious and his son watched his lifeless dad lay flat on the ground as he frantically sent his electric scooter sailing through the air to run and get help.  He started screaming HELP, HELP.... then proceeded to erratically run through the house looking for daddy's cell phone, calling 911. He ran back to crash site to observe the body laying still and he thought " My dad is dead"!  He proceeded to talk to the 911 operator as he walked down the long driveway to the end of the bridge and standing partially in the road crying with a cell phone to his ear an Angel appeared in a white mini-van and stopped to comfort him staying by his side until the ambulance arrived.

I guess being a super hero started at a young age!

As the paramedic sped into sight they all ran back to the crash site and Patrick (my husband) had gotten up, stumbling to lift his motorcycle then proceeded to walk toward my son (Kendyl). Kendyl's mind spiraled out of control with fear and confusion leaving him in a state of shock.  The paramedics had to force Patrick into the ambulance as they told me later "he was out of his mind" but he kept saying "I'm Fine", so they began the protocol in the ambulance with Patrick then made the phone call to me. Kendyl remembering my cell number called and it was answered by my daughter's bouncy voice and he heard, "Hi Daddy", my son responds " Skyler it's Kendyl, Daddy had a motorcycle accident come home". I can hear his voice on the speaker phone but it is not clear and I only have 2% battery left so Skyler says " mom Kendyl is playing a prank" and hangs up. The paramedic calls back immediately saying "this is not a prank, your husband is going to be fine but we need you to come home, get your son and meet us at the ER".

Skyler begins wailing loudly in the front seat and I have a hard time focusing. "Skyler please calm down I need to drive safely home, let's begin praying sweet girl, the man said on the phone that daddy will be fine". We need to believe him and calm down. That does not stop me from driving like a lunatic till I get to our street. It has a fire truck blocking the entire road, it is then I begin to feel a sense of deep urgency to see my husband and Skyler jumps out of the moving car toward the house. The fireman stops her, calms her down and says "please get back in the car everything is ok". I pass a police officer on the driveway and ask the question I really don't want an answer to- "Did he have a helmet on"?  "No I am sorry mam he did not". I am so angry I think to myself if he is not dead in the back of this vehicle I may kill him before he gets to the hospital but as I walk around the side I see my son running toward me with a look of terror in his eyes and NOTHING matters in this moment except comforting him. He holds on tight and I have no idea and will not know what he went through for several days. Once he is safely in the car I walk fiercely back to the ambulance, I swing open the back door and get ready to unleash the wrath of anger I feel inside but then I see the man I plan to spend the rest of my life with covered in blood, hooked up to several tubes and he is talking in Chinese and the death sentence I was about to administer turned into me sounding like a parrot, "I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you". 

The sirens that you hear every day, now has a personal attachment and we follow close behind as if losing sight meant saying good bye and our hearts beat so loud you can barely hear the sniffling. The possibilities of it only being a family of 3 instead of 4 was too close to home in that moment. 

Inside the ER, we wait and wait and wait. Panic will not win..... I keep telling myself and desperately try to comfort and distract my kids from the voices in our heads. My dad arrives then co-workers and still we have not seen the patient, it is almost an hour since we have arrived before I walk through the double doors to his room. The image so vivid in my mind how long his body looked on the bed, his feet are hanging off, his finger nails have blood caked under them (he would hate that), his eye is completely shut and swollen, his face is disfigured with edema, he is violently vomiting blood and he begins to shake, his body vibrates almost off the table then the Angels around him begin to move his gurney out the room and other Angels come rushing in and his bed rolls away from me.  I follow close behind once again sounding like a parrot in case that is all he remembers " I love you, I love you, I love you" and he is gone AGAIN. 

I walk back into the waiting room to find two sweet little faces looking intently at me for answers as if I have any control over the situation and all I can do is shake my head side to side as if saying no. Skyler dramatically curls up in a ball rocking herself to the sound of her crying and my son dives head first into a video game escaping into robot world.  I now realize that this story could have many different ending one of which I live the rest of my life with Patrick, one in which I am changing his diaper and feeding him daily or one in which we have second chances and our life is changed but the same. I begin praying without ceasing. Angels everywhere are doing the same!

Daddy brought Kendyl Home, now Kendyl may be bringing Daddy home!