Rough Week, Tough Year

My mother made it through her heart valve replacement in April, last month my niece was in a four wheeler accident (which required a skin graft) then this past week my father was in the hospital where they discovered he has diverticulitis. He is still in the hospital, but hopefully will be home this weekend.  When these unplanned for events occur, it really puts life’s priorities into perspective. Sure it’s admirable to save money, it’s nice to travel and have pretty clothes and eat at yummy restaurants, but if you don’t have your family and your health, everything is for nothing! Which speaking of delicious food, my poor dad.  One of his favorite things to enjoy are gourmet meals. We always have said we can plot our lives by the restaurants where we have eaten. He has been so miserable, he said “No more gourmet meals for me.” I know it will be good for him to eat healthier and lose weight, it will put less stress on his enlarged heart, so hopefully he will not have another bout with this issue. I’d like to make sense of it all, learn some life lesson, but right now I just want to be a whiney kid, throw up my arms and say “why us, life just isn’t fair” and it’s not right now. If my dad never has another filet mignon and side of creamed spinach, he’ll “survive” his favorite phrase when things don’t go as hoped or expected, “You’ll survive.”  And maybe, just maybe learning his condition now is a good thing and he will change his eating habits which will prolong his life another decade or two. I will learn to make him some savory soups or other digestive friendly meals. We will survive.