When I worked at the school district - it was all we could do to get through March. From Presidents Day to Spring Break there were no holidays, no long weekends, no teacher/staff only days. It's the longest period during the school year - without a reprieve. I know... WAHHH! Somebody call the Waaahhh...mbulance! We were spoiled for sure. But with that - March and all of it's dreariness, snow, gray, gravel all over, dirty cars, wet animal paws, wet kids clothing, wet wet wet, drizzly, crapass weather - we forged ahead... counting down the days to "Spring Break".
Over the years - The Dad and I, (and his sis & her family) have come up with more than just the dreary weather or lack of down time in March - to just get through it.
**SPOILER ALERT** Doom & Gloom next few paragraphs.
March 12, 2001 - The Dads' dad succumbed to cancer. He had been battling lung cancer for some time and in the early hours of March 12 - took his oxygen off, coiled up the cord and hung it on his tank. He then drifted off - he knew it was time to stop battling the evil that is cancer. It was early, a Monday morning. Only hours before - The Dad and I had busted our way back from Wenatchee, from a basketball tournament #7 was in - to see him, to say hello...knowing that "hello" could well be our "goodbye". He asked me if I'd trim his hair (what little of it he had)... and so I did. The Dad was over at his childhood house by 6 AM the next morning - calling in Hospice - and watching his dad leave the house for the last time.
March 27, 2001 - Two weeks later - The Dads' younger brother passed away. It was the first day of baseball practice and The Dad had left his cell phone home. It kept ringing off the hook but I didn't answer it until after our home phone rang - and a gal from Jeff's office told me that a deputy with the Spokane Police Department was trying to locate him. (uhhhh.... a wave of panic sets in) Moments after I hung up with her, his cell phone rang again and I answered. It was the police chaplain, he explained and he was at The Dads' moms' house and it was important he get there. He did not tell me what it was about - but there was a sense it was probably about his brother. Jay - before his last two years of life - was a funny, competitive, sports know it all, hard working, great friend to all he knew - guy. His demon was alcohol - and it got the best of him. He tried to beat it many times - but there was a point we knew - and I believe Jay knew - he wasn't going to escape it.
March 8, 2010: After suffering a stroke in August of 2008, leaving The Dads' mom with the ability to only say "C" or "See" or "Sea" (we'll never know) - but at the same time leaving her with the faculties to walk, eat, smile, go to church, shower, watch TV, hum and remember her friends and family, Jean also ultimately lost her life due to cancer. With the extreme unfortune of not being able to tell anyone how she was feeling, what she was feeling... her cancer went undiagnosed until it was too late. She'd been in and out of the hospital here in Spokane and blood tests did not reveal anything. It was trying on The Dad as prior to he and his sister moving her over to Billings, nearer to her daughter - the first responders' sirens that would be called to her assisted living facility - were in the earshot of our house. There was a period of time that each time we heard them - we braced ourselves for the phone to ring.
March 9, 2012: Just about a week before this date - I had sent my pal, Pat, a text asking if he was at the EWU game... that I was scanning the crowd for him. He replied that he was home watching the GU womens game. I scoffed at that. I think I called him a weenie. Yes, I knew he too was yet another patient - reeling with the before, during, after and on and on effects of cancer - but it was my job to remain his crass, sarcastic friend during all of it. We bantered back and forth over text for a bit - and that would be the last time I "talked" to him. My sister-wife (his wife, Robin) and I texted a few times over the next few days after Pat was admitted into the hospital - again - due to the toll the treatments had taken on his little Italian body. I believe most people felt Pat would be home in a matter of days. On this particular morning - I had posted on my first year blog - about their daughters' senior project and texted Robin at early-thirty, not expecting a response any time soon. But she was at a hair appointment and said she'd tell Erin to look at it when she got home. That was shortly after 7 AM. As I left my office that day for lunch break - I received a text from her that said simply "He's gone." My heart sank. Of all of the people in the world I know personally - Patty was one guy you always believed would kick jackass cancer in the ars. It was with Pat & Robin that just days before The Dads' mom passed - we were in Vegas, watching Bon Jovi at the MGM and Pat was, at the time, living with a short lived reprieve from his battle with "Fat Bastard".
March is also the month The Dad and I celebrate our anniversary. On March 2, 2013 - we will knock down Door 22. All those years ago - the entire week before our wedding - Spokane was seeing record highs. Birds chirping. Sun shining. Grass greening up. It was not seen before - not that I could remember. The night before our wedding it began to rain. And it RAINED HARD... we woke up to snow on the ground. This is not unusual for Spokane in any way, shape or form - but after the loss of his mom and then Pat last year - I suggested to The Dad that we might want to have a renewal of our vows sometime...
Just not in March.
No comments:
Post a Comment