Life can change in a second.
Life does change in a second.
There is really nothing anyone can do about it. Regardless of how much you like where you are
or dislike where you are, life cannot stand still.
April 28, 2006
Many of you who know me realized how fast my life, as I knew
it changed on April 28, 2006. I was
45.
I was married, but separated. Although, my husband, Bruce and I seemed to
get along much better than we had when we lived together. We talked every day. We saw each other most days. Finally, we weren’t stressing each other
out. I say that it was because we
stopped expecting things of one another.
On Thursday, the 27th, Bruce needed to be in
Latrobe (our hometown). My son had an
appointment and Bruce needed to go with him.
The appointment happened. After
that Bruce went to golf with a friend.
Then they went and ate. Hot
sausage, stuffed banana peppers in marinara, and wings was the menu. After a late lunch Bruce came to the
house. He said that he needed to be in
Virginia on Friday morning, but he was tired and planned on napping, getting up
around midnight to go to VA.
He was upstairs napping and I went up. He asked if there was anything in the house
for heartburn. I remember asking him if I
could take him to the ER because he looked horrible. He simply said that he was tired from working
4 days in 3. He said that he had
heartburn because of his lunch choice. Instead, I ran to the drug store and got
him antacids.
The evening carried on in its normal routine. Bruce asked to make sure he was awake by
midnight. Midnight turned into about
12:45. He got up, got a shower and dressed.
He asked Meg (our daughter) if her sinuses had been bothering her. He said his allergies were starting to flare
up.
He needed a ride about 3 miles from our house. Typically, I would have suggested that Meg
drive him to his car since she was awake.
Oddly, I didn’t. I got up and
went to the car. I started to get in the
passenger seat, then decided that it made more sense for me to drive, instead
of changing seats in the next few minutes.
We were driving down the highway about 2 miles from
home. Things changed immediately and
forever.
Bruce screamed and hit me.
I looked over at him and knew that I was in a race for time to the
nearest hospital. The entire day of him
having heartburn, looking tired, and finally feeling as though he was starting
to have allergy issues made perfect sense.
Heart attack. I drove fast. I drove really fast.
I didn’t have my cell phone with me. I arrived at the hospital. They took him out of the car. Someone was immediately on the gurney doing
heart compressions. I parked the car and
went in to give insurance intake and wait.
All I could think of was that I was going to telling 2 out
of 3 of our kids in the next few minutes that their dad died. The same person who was just alive 15 minutes
earlier. Wow. I called Meg and told her that she and Greg
had to come to the hospital. I
immediately called a friend of mine and told her that she and her husband had
to beat Greg and Meg to the hospital. In
my mind, I remember vividly thinking, Chuck and Sandy will help me.
Before anyone got there the doctor came and
escorted me into a small room. He told
me that Bruce had a heart attack and he was able to be revived. He was stable, but needed to be taken to
another hospital for surgery.
I walked out to see the kids walking into the ER with Chuck
and Sandy beside them. I explained the
situation. The kids were walking in to
see Bruce as they were preparing him for his life flight to another
hospital.
Now, we had to call Chris.
Imagine having to call your’ son across the country and tell him what is
going on. Imagine having to call
brothers and sisters and telling them that their baby brother is being flown to
Pittsburgh for emergency surgery. Those
calls were all made.
I was determined though with Chris that he was
only told that his dad had a heart attack, survived but was going into
surgery. He needed to come home. 
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