Upon leaving the funeral home after attending a visitation for one of my parents’ friends, my dad, mom, and I were talking on the way to our vehicles. Dad made the comment, “Man! There sure were a lot of old people in there!” He seemed to have an added bounce in his step and a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. I detect a sense of giddiness whenever I am around him. I can actually feel his genuine joy at simply being alive.
This Christmas will be the second one I will have been blessed to spend with my dad since his devastating heart attack in 2007. Just the other day--the day of the visitation as a matter of fact--my dad went in for his 6 month check up. He told me that his doctor remarked that he just can’t understand my dad. He said that every time he looks at my dad’s heart it is so damaged and dead that he simply cannot believe that my dad is here…that he is alive. And not only that, but my dad looks fantastic! Dr. Art, as my dad calls him, said that Dad’s heart is comparable to driving down the highway with all of these shiny, fast, new luxury cars speeding ahead…and there, in the distance, is this smoking and shaking rusted out old jalopy—sputtering hard to try to keep up.
This got me thinking that it is not so much about his heart condition as it is about the condition of his heart. His heart is and always has been in the right place. His heart is so filled with love … and love conquers all…faith, hope, and love…the greatest of these is love….that’s my dad.
This Christmas will be the second one I will have been blessed to spend with my dad since his devastating heart attack in 2007. Just the other day--the day of the visitation as a matter of fact--my dad went in for his 6 month check up. He told me that his doctor remarked that he just can’t understand my dad. He said that every time he looks at my dad’s heart it is so damaged and dead that he simply cannot believe that my dad is here…that he is alive. And not only that, but my dad looks fantastic! Dr. Art, as my dad calls him, said that Dad’s heart is comparable to driving down the highway with all of these shiny, fast, new luxury cars speeding ahead…and there, in the distance, is this smoking and shaking rusted out old jalopy—sputtering hard to try to keep up.
This got me thinking that it is not so much about his heart condition as it is about the condition of his heart. His heart is and always has been in the right place. His heart is so filled with love … and love conquers all…faith, hope, and love…the greatest of these is love….that’s my dad.
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