John 3:16 – Be thankful, grateful, patient, charitable, kind, and smile, as it is infectious. God Bless America; protect our president and Military!
The date was January 7, 1996. The Eagles, in one of their first playoff appearances in years, had just lost to our division nemesis, the Dallas Cowboys, 30-11 in Dallas. However, I failed to mention for those of you old enough to remember or too young to know during the blizzard of 96′. By the storm’s end, we would have 3′ of snow or more in some places here in the Philadelphia area. By the time I headed out to shovel, almost two feet were on the ground by game’s end.
I might add, before this day, I was a long-time smoker of twenty-plus years. In disgust, I told my wife I was going outside to kick some snow around and, in reality, wanted to be present for what would be the worst blizzard of our generation. Hey! What can I say? I like playing in the snow! I left my half-pack of Kool’s and lighter on the end table and, donning my coat, boots, gloves, and hat, headed out the door.
We were staying with my mother at the time, who was preparing that Spring to move into assisted living. We were in a lawsuit with our insurance company, which was reneging on its policy to make good on a serious house problem but that’s a story for a different day.
Our daughter was upstairs sitting with my mother and her friend. Oh! She was two months pregnant with our first grandchild, who just turned 30 a few weeks ago. Like Joe Pesci in the movie My Cousin Vinny, where he says to Marisa Tomei, “How much more can we pile on this cake?”
To make a long story short, I had a heart attack shoveling that day. In the time it took me to drag myself home and sit on my mother’s enclosed porch, reacclimating before heading into a hot house and telling my wife to call 911, quite a bit of time passed between then and the Emt’s walking in the door. The Ambulance would need the township to plow the road before they could even get to the house. So, you can imagine the time this was all taking place; while having a myocardial infarction, I was in a very mindful long talk with God before the Calvary arrived in the form of EMTs, with most importantly nitroglycerin tablets.
Zoom ahead much later at the hospital ER, after the EMT’s gave me a few Nitroglycerine tablets before arriving, I thought I was through the worst of it. I remember the doctor was on the left side of the bed, looking intently at the EKG, which my wife, sitting in a chair to my right, and I could not see. She was quite upset, as you can imagine. So, I tried to calm her, assuring her I was fine and that everything was going to be okay! I turned to get the doctor to confirm this, to which he responded, “He’s still having it, explaining like an earthquake; it is followed by a series of tremors.” I spun my head around quicker than Linda Blair in the movie, The Exorcist! Who knew.
I remember saying to her in that moment, ” Hon, when you get home, I left a pack of my cigarettes and a lighter on the end table. I also left several packs in the carton in the refrigerator.” She said, “Yeah!” with her eyes narrowing at what I might say next. I said, “When you get home from this mess, throw everything in the trash, as I quit smoking today adding, “I am sorry for putting you and our family through this.”
I kept my word to God and her that day, and it has been thirty-plus years. My only regret is that I wish it didn’t take a heart attack to do it, and I wish further that I had, all those years back, not smoked.
What’s your story?
Point to Ponder: Most people fight their demons, whether or not it is cigarettes, drugs, booze, or others, but the only thing I learned is no one can fight those demons and move on in life but YOU! If I added anything to that statement, it is that once you go through it, take the time to be repentant and responsible for YOUR actions and offer apologies to everyone you hurt, took advantage of, or used along that dark path, as it does help with the healing process of eventually forgiving yourself!
Wow! I generated the above through AI, but it is so realistic as to what happened that day!
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