The Gift of Life

Today I want to tell you a story about how my daughter's life was saved this week.  My 23-year-old daughter Heidi gets allergy shots on a weekly basis and has for about six months now.  Last Wednesday after receiving her weekly injection she started feeling sick as she was going out to her car.  Once in her car she turned the air on in hopes that it would help her feel better.  It didn't.  She realized that she was going to throw up so she turned her car off and got out just in time.  After she threw up she was having trouble breathing and passed out.  Though she did not realize it, she was having an anaphylactic reaction--the most severe of allergic reactions which can lead to death within minutes.  Luckily a woman had just pulled into a parking stall next to my daughter as all of this was happening.  She called 911 and ran to the nearest office for help.  By the time the paramedics got there my daughter was blue and having severe difficulty breathing.  After an epi-pen given by the doctor's office and three more given by the paramedics they were finally able to stabilize her and rush her to the hospital.  Two hours later she was able to go home.  Today, five days later she is fine.

What if that woman had not been there?  What if no one had seen her before it was too late?  This Memorial Day weekend would have been very different for my family.  This beautiful daughter has been married for 10 months to a wonderful young man that we adore.  They are set to close on the house they just build this next week.  What "could have been" is almost too painful to think about.  Our lives were very nearly turned completely upside down.

Once again I am given new perspective.  Last week I wrote about how I nearly lost my husband a few years ago and how I have tried never to take his presence in my life for granted since then.  Just one week later I have again been given new perspective of the gift of having this daughter in my life.  I cannot quit wanting to hug her.

I also have questions.  I have a sweet friend whose son was killed in a head-on collision this month.  He was only 21 years old.  Why was my child spared and hers was not?  I do not know the answer.  I only know that we need to cherish the ones we care about while we have got them.  Over the years I have had brushes with death and almost lost a small son (twice, the same child) my husband, and now this daughter.  My new goal is to love and appreciate the people around me more fully.  I don't want to look back with regrets at not having appreciated my time with someone I love while I had the chance.  It reminded me of the song "Live Like You Were Dying" by Tim McGraw.  In part, the song says:

He said
"I was in my early forties with a lot of life before me
And a moment came tat stopped me on a dime.
I spent most of the next days looking at the x-rays
Talkin' bout the options and talkin' 'bout sweet time."

I asked him, "When it sank in that this might really be the real end
How'd it hit you when you get that kind of news, man, what'd you do?"

He said
"I went skydiving, I went Rocky Mountain climbing
I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu,
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying"
And he said, "Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying."

He said
"I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn't
And I became a friend a friend would like to have,
And all of a sudden going fishin' wasn't such an imposition
And I went three time that year I lost my dad.
I finally read the Good Book, and I took a good long hard look
At what I'd do if I could do it all again.

...Like tomorrow was a gift and you've got eternity
To think about what you'd do with it,
What could you do with it?
What did you do with it?
What would I do with it?

In the United States we celebrate Memorial Day in honor of those who have died serving our country.  It has also become a day to remember other loved ones who have died.  Today as we remember those we have lost, let us also appreciate those still with us, and give our very best to them while we have the chance.