On the Road Again

It's been five months now since my dad's accident.  To me, the time has went fast.  I'm not sure it has for dad though.  August 28, 2010 will forever be a date that will be burned into my memory.  It was possibly one of the worst phone calls I have ever received.  It was a beautiful morning and we were off to a golf tournament our friends put on every year.  We were headed to Ankeny and then my sister called.  I ignored it because of course we were lost and I was trying to get directions to the golf course on my phone.  When she immediately called Chris's phone after mine, I knew something was wrong.  She told me dad's truck ran over him.  I thought it was his semi truck that rolled over him since he often did runs on Saturday mornings.  I instantly began to freak out.  In my mind, I was wondering how anyone could recover from such an accident?  What would life be like??  Would my baby be able to play with his grandpa? 

The next few weeks were difficult, sad, emotional, scary, and yet funny.  I will never know the pain and fear that my dad had to go through.  I know what it was like to watch him suffer and that was almost unbearable.  For a body to go through what he had to, I would have to say he must be Superman or some form of Superman to recover from that.  Melissa flew home to be with him and us.  During all of this, we as a family grew so much closer, which i didn't think was even possible.  Imagine a small hospital room with just enough room for his bed, a chair and cot.  With the cot in there, there was no walking room.  Now imagine being the doctors and nurses coming in to help dad and seeing four girls (two, actually three!) pregnant sitting on the cot, Chris standing against the wall and mom in the chair.  The funny thing is that this was what his room looked like for weeks.  Add Ryan and Gerry to the mix and you could officially say the room was crowded.  :)  I'm sure we drove them nuts being there all the time, but we had to make sure they took good care of our dad.  I'm sure looking back on raising four daughters, dad never imagined he would have four built-in nurses, care takers and cheerleaders.  I still laugh thinking about Melissa standing in the hospital hallway with a sign made for dad cheering him on as he took his first walk.  And my mom - what can I say about her that would even remotely come close to how much she went through and what an amazing person she is?  She must be made of steel to go through all those emotions and be his primary care giver.  She amazed me with her faith and strength.  I'm not sure any of us could have done what she did all those weeks.

Fast forward a few months: Dad has passed all his doctor's appointments with flying colors.  No more braces, walkers and canes.  He is officially done with physical therapy.  We are SO proud of him.  He has made tremendous progress and we feel so blessed to have our family all together.   

Fast forward to this week.  He officially started work on Monday.  Of course, the first blizzard hit this week.  And the worry begins again knowing he is out on the roads.  But, I am so happy for him because I know he loves to drive and I know he is simply happy that he can be driving again.  I wanted to call him to check on him yesterday, but I didn't want to distract him on his cell phone while out driving.  But I know how our conversation would have ended - the same way it always did when he was on the road.....

Me: "Drive careful Dad"
Dad: "Always do!!!"

Congratulations Dad!!!