Son Up to Son Down

This past weekend we celebrated the one year anniversary of my mom’s life-saving open heart surgery. We gathered with family and friends to soak up each other’s love and company, because a milestone like that is something to celebrate!

May 1, 2021 was a life changing day for not only my mom, but for my whole family as well. I will never forget the nerves, tears, and celebratory hugs of that day. Another reason I’ll never forget it is because it was also the day my middle son broke his arm at soccer while I was at the hospital with my mom … talk about needing to be in two places at once!

It is not lost on me that this surgery took place so close to Mother’s Day. She had been dealing with symptoms for several months and at a specialist appointment on April 29 she was told “You aren’t leaving the hospital. We need to do surgery ASAP.” We already knew she needed surgery to repair her valve, but at this appointment they discovered an aneurysm in her heart. We were told that without the valve repair, she may not make it another two years, but if the aneurysm wasn’t addressed immediately she may not make it another day. My mom was born with a hole in her heart and my uncle (her brother) put it the best: God put that hole in her heart when she was born so 60 years later the doctor’s would know just where to look to find the aneurysm and save her life. 

It was an extremely scary time, but the least scared of all of us was my mom. She is firm in her faith and knew that God had her right where she needed to be. To our surprise and delight, the surgeon asked her if he could pray with her before she went in, which solidified for all of us that everything was going to be OK.

It was nothing I didn’t already know, but watching my mom go through that surgery just confirmed for me that she is by far the bravest and toughest woman I know. She’s a woman of unwavering faith and fearlessness. The first thing she said when she came out of anesthesia was “Did you guys sleep OK?” as if she didn’t just go through a major, life altering surgery. But that’s the kind of woman she is — caring, giving, and loving like nobody else I know.

We feel so blessed to have another Mother’s Day with my mom because there was a short time there when we were afraid that wasn’t going to happen. I look forward to many, many more years with her and won’t take any of that time for granted. She gave strong as a mother a whole new meaning.