Be thankful, be grateful, be patient, be charitable, be kind, and don’t forget to smile, as it is infectious.
~~~~~ Happy Heavenly 106th Birthday, Aunt Cass Donahue! ~~~~
I was a smoker for many years and tried to quit on more occasions than I can count using my fingers and toes. I even switched from smoking Kool Menthols to Carlton non-menthol, thinking that if I could transition to those god-awful, poor excuse of a cigarettes, quitting would be a cinch. It wasn’t. However, let the record show that smoking cigarettes or any other thing that costs far more than it’s worth in money and lung capacity and goes up in smoke might be the most stupid thing you can ever do. So Don’t. The irony of it is, I played organized sports, mainly football, in high school. Every June, I’d quit smoking to train, and as soon as Thanksgiving was over, for many years, I’d light up again. DUMB!
So, it is appropriate that I am sharing this with you on Monday, 2/23, just after our power came back on after our most recent snowstorm. Let me take you down memory lane.
The year is 1/7/1996, and I am 39 years old, a little over a month shy of turning 40. We were at my mother’s house, in the midst of the Blizzard of 96, with an expected three feet of snow or more. Mom is upstairs with our daughter and a friend, who is expecting our first grandchild, who will turn 30 in a few months. My wife is busy preparing dinner, and our other children are hunkered down at friends’ houses as they can’t get home with almost two feet of snow on the ground. Our beloved Philadelphia Eagles just lost to the Dallas Cowboys 30-11 in the first round of that year’s playoffs. I remember yelling to my wife, “How long before dinner? She said, “In about an hour or so!” I said, “I am going outside to say I was in the blizzard of 96 and, more importantly, to go kick some snow around.” She responded, “You’re crazy waiting for the kids to get home!”
So, there I am, shovel in hand, having finished shoveling our walk, and was almost done with the neighbors’ when I felt a twinge in my shoulder. At first, I thought I pulled a muscle, but taking one more shovel full of snow, and my Red Cross training, let me know that I was having a heart attack in the worst blizzard in our little part of the world. I am sure there’s worse, but in that particular moment, you couldn’t convince me.
Things I remember quite vividly that day, the ambulance had to get a plow to clear the main road three doors down from Mom’s. They then had to call the local fire company, the D.H. Garrettford Volunteer Company, for assistance. You can imagine that, in the many minutes that passed before this happened, I was in a reflective inner-voice conversation with GOD! I wasn’t so much afraid as I pleaded my case that the timing could be better. My wife and kids, one of whom, our eldest daughter, would give birth later that year to our first grandchild, were very upset. Mom was upset as a parent and was moving into a 55+ community with assisted living at Lima Estates in a few months. Every parent wants to outlive their kids and grandkids.
So, in a quiet internal conversation, I asked Him, and He listened. He’s very good at that. It was at that moment that I felt the pressure release just enough, as a short time later, the EMTs arrived with the nitroglycerine tablets. They helped immensely.
Things I reflect on seeing how upset my wife was, “I said when you get home, the cigarettes I left on the table near the TV, and the extra packs I purchased to hold me through the storm… Throw them away as I quit! Looking back, I just don’t know why it took a heart attack to get me to quit. I wish I had done it sooner. Hey, but everything for a reason and in due time. In retrospect, there’s irony in every story, and I am no different, as I see humor in almost everything! It comes with being Irish!
So, once situated in the hospital room, my window faced uphill towards Prendie on Lansdowne Ave. My wife and I watched young men and women sledding and tobogganing down that hill. Hoot and hollering with beer in the snow, and all we could think of was wishing I could be doing it too! Another thing was that my mother’s next-door neighbor, whose walk I was shoveling when I first realized I was having a myocardial infarction, had a snowblower in his garage. Go Figure!
To tie this all together, my 30s, for the most part, were a fun time in our lives. We recently moved into a beautiful 1920s-era 5-bedroom Tudor-style single-family home with an oversized garage, a beautifully landscaped yard, and a private driveway. It had everything my wife, our kids, and I could’ve wanted from our earliest days of marriage. Our four kids were at the ages now where we could go out for a date night on weekends. I remember telling folks who asked, “How do you feel now that you’re 40?” My response was, “40 is great, but 39 was almost a killer!”
Another point of note that I will end with is when my three older brothers called the hospital the next morning to check up on me. Though in different houses with wives (who probably prompted them to call) and kids of their own, they all opened with the same line….”Hey Dan! Just called to see how you’re doing… but more importantly, to thank you for getting us out of shoveling snow!” If you are lucky enough to have older brothers like mine, you’ve got to love them! For the record, I have three pretty awesome sisters too!
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