Dad update # 3

And we don’t understand it fully either.

To appreciate what you are about to read in this next update on Dad, I think you need to make sure you have read the most recent two updates from the past three days. You’ll glimpse, if you squint a little and read between the lines, a roller-coaster we’re not gonna wish on anyone. But after having ridden it for what we hope is this one and only time, we can hop off now and enjoy more fully EVERYTHING in our lives we have to be thankful and grateful for.

This sent Friday, Feb. 24:

Dad

This sent Saturday, Feb. 25:

Dad update

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Because…

Here’s a picture we took this morning, Sunday, Feb. 26 at about 10 a.m.:

Know that I have a couple other pictures that I won’t show you—because even THOSE pictures, bleak and dark as they were and remain, are precious and private and they, too, will evolve into their own kind of beautiful…but only after some years have passed and we’ve learned better how to live in relationship with that flavor of grief. Those specific pictures, however, will become a part of Dad lore as we simply will add them into the narrative of this current story—because they don’t actually tell the story of what we thought they were telling at the time. Every time we’ll tell THIS story, we’ll always shake our heads

We remain in a state of utter disbelief. This update is going to be brief because we are still processing what is happening now after 65 hours of a semi-comatose, near death experience.

All I can say now is that I have a renewed sense of awe at the remarkable thing a brain is—and that is being said by a brain-geek of over three decades! Dad’s rally continues; and yet we are still mindful of the potential evanescence of this precious time.

My GOSH this man is tough! I mean, we knew that, but c’mon…to have wrestled with death for 65 hours and to seemingly, for the moment, come out on top??? What the heck???

So we really are living moment to moment now. For now, the roller coaster is at rest. But we are still strapped in. You know how those bars and straps self-release when the coaster has come to rest and it is safe to hop off? Yeah, we’re still waiting for an all clear.

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Oh, and Dementia still sucks.

Had to be said.

But the muffin and latte tasted about as great as they’ve ever tasted.

Since we are, unbelievably, here now, in a place we seriously didn’t think we’d ever see again, I’ll now stop these daily updates in favor of getting back to “normal programming.” I’m going to take the next few days to continue to process what we’ve just experienced and will write at you again on Friday—the usual 4 p.m. posting.

Unless, of course, the roller coaster takes off again with us still strapped in.

Thanks for staying tuned in and interested (but don’t get on this coaster please).

Apparently, all your thoughts, prayers, karma, and kind words made a difference. As if we should or would ever doubt that!

Thank you, honestly. I wish you could feel in your hearts the love you all have sent us these past three days. It is real, it is warm, and it is lovely.

🙏🏼

Kert