May Humidity

IEG gave us our 96th sibling assignment this week:

1996 was a year filled with life-changing events in our lives, both joyous and sad. Write about an event of 1996 and why it was significant to you.

May 1996 was like experiencing really bad humidity.

I only experienced really bad humidity once, and it was while living in Glendive, Montana. PKR and I had just driven from Kellogg, across the rather large state of Montana, and arrived at our apartment in Glendive. We opened the door of the car, and I was blasted with a stifling, warm, suffocating, atmospheric phenomena.

At the beginning of May, I received a call from someone in my family that Dad had gone to the doctor, and had cancer and only had a month to live.

The air started getting thicker. I decided to make arrangements to travel to Kellogg to be with my family, and be with Dad before he died. I remember borrowing PKR's parent's car, and driving to Kellogg with my three children, who were 8 months, 20 months, and five-years-old.

We arrived in Kellogg, and took over the bedroom upstairs. It was hard to know how quiet to keep the three girls, and how much quiet Dad needed. It was all a bit overwhelming. I was starting to suffocate. I remember feeling like a never got a break from the kids. But who could I ask?

PKR had some family in town, but they were dealing with another problem. PKR's grandpa had a stroke, and was in the hospital, and not doing well.

Things were starting to heat up.

PKR did come for a weekend, and was able to see his grandpa before he died. I think Grandpa died the following day.

Meanwhile, back at my house, Dad's health was slowly deteriorating. It got especially bad when they started putting him on morphine, I believe it was.

I was now enclosed with a very thick, heavy and moist blanket of suffocation.

I wasn't sure how to breathe. PKR came back for his grandpa's funeral, which was a wonderful celebration of Grandpa Taylor's life.

I think he returned to Meridian, and I stayed a while longer, but it was finally time to go and say one last goodbye to Dad. The girls gave him a big hug and kiss, and told him goodbye. I told him I loved him, said goodbye, and walked out the door, knowing I would never see him again.

It was still rather hard to breathe.

I was back home in Meridian for a week or so, I think, when I got the call saying Dad had passed away. He died at home, in his own bed, and was finally at peace and out of pain.

There was a change in the weather...a bit of a shift in the barometric pressure. The air lightened up. It was easier to breathe.

Dad was gone, but so was his pain. He was in a better place.

I returned to Kellogg for a celebration of my dad's life. It was hard. Many tears were shed. But there was also sweet remembrances, love and laughter.

The air was clearer, and lighter, and I could breathe once again.