No Matter What . . .

The snow had been blowing for several days with 6 foot of snow already on the ground. January had been a particularly bad month for storms and even though February was just a few days away, the storms showed no signs of stopping. I was in the hospital to have my adenoids removed and tubes put into my ears. Just a day away from turning 13, I was more miserable than I had ever been. Hospital workers had been working for 3 shifts strait without any relief. Surgeons were being brought in on snowmobiles, and tempers were running short.

No one from my family was able to come in, and I was so afraid and alone. A nurse brought me some apple juice, that I accidentally spilled onto the left side of my bed which left both me and the bed soaking and sticky. No new sheets were available, so after a severe tongue lashing, another nurse begrudgingly remade my bed with the wet sheets so I would be mostly dry. I was able to get a phone call from my mom and I pleaded for her to come get me, but no one was allowed out. She wasn’t hopeful that I would be able to come home the next day as planned, even though it was my birthday. That night I cried all night long.

Morning came and with it sunshine for the first time in a week. The snow had tapered off yet the roads were still shut down and the hospital staff still had no relief. I didn’t want to be there. I didn’t want anything except to be in my Daddy’s arms.

A few hours later, a miracle happened, my Daddy walked through the door with a smile on his face and his arms ready to scoop me up. He had been out early shoveling his way to the main road, then he waited for a plow truck to come by and he followed it to the hospital. He signed me out and bundled head to toe we made the journey back home. Barely able to speak from the surgery and from crying I simply said I love you Daddy as I snuggled close on his arm as he drove. I knew that there was no way for my birthday party but Daddy’s coming to get me had been the best birthday gift I could have received.

When we reached home, and went inside, there was all of my family gathered around the dining room table yelling, “surprise!” and singing Happy Birthday to me. Mom had made the Snoopy cake that I had wanted and under a wrapped box with a big bow was the fish aquarium that I had been asking for. When I looked up at Daddy he just smiled and said, “We always celebrate birthdays, no matter what.”

Two and a half years passed and we found ourselves tied to the hospital again. Mom had been very ill, and was close to death. Daddy and I had come down from our home in MI to IL where Mom had been hospitalized to be with her. She was in such a bad way, no one in our family wanted me to be there. They didn’t want my last memories of Momma to be of such pain and hardship. I fought this as much as a brash 15 year old could, but most days I was out fought.

As I watched the calendar go by I new I had to be at the hospital. I talked to uncles and aunts, sister, and Grandma, till finally Grandma allowed me to go and got me a ride. I stopped in a little convenience store looking for gifts. I found a little stuffed monkey I bought for Momma, and then I found a tie, and a package of cupcakes. When I showed up at the hospital room I was let in for just a couple of minutes. I gave Momma the little monkey, even though she was not conscious, and told her I loved her. Daddy had been sitting with Momma and seemed both glad and mad that I had come.

I was quickly ushered out to the family waiting room where I sat in the corner by a little table. I carefully laid the tie on the table, and opened the package of cup cakes. I took one cup cake and placed a single little candle in it and when I heard Daddy coming down the hall I took the match from my uncle and lit the candle.

Daddy started scolding me before he was in the room, he had told me not to come up there and was very disappointed ----- his words stopped. He saw me, the tie and the little cupcake with the single candle glowing in the darkened room. “We always celebrate birthdays, no matter what.” I said. "Happy Birthday Daddy."

Tears filled his eyes as he hugged me so very tight. We sat there and ate the two little cupcakes, even though neither of us liked that kind, and talked till he had to go back to be with Momma and I had to go back to Grandma’s.

I never knew how much that birthday meant to Daddy till a few years later when he used it as a sermon illustration one Sunday service.

Though he’s gone on to heaven, May 29^th I still celebrate every year, because that was the day he was born and the day God gave me such a wonderful Daddy years and years before I was born.

Daddy, I love and miss you so!!!!