GIRLS CAN BE SUPERHEROS TOO!

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about how much a 11lb, 13oz curly-haired little bundle of chub saved so many lives.

I am in awe of my little girl and am inspired by her.

As I was sitting in my hospital bed recovering from the C-section, my dad sat at my feet looking pale as he was writing Claudette's eulogy for the KC Star. I asked what was wrong and he said he had been short of breathe for a few days, but no big deal. Dad had just finished writing my mom's eulogy 6 months previous. Losing his wife of 42 years had taken a toll on him.

 

 We didn't now how much of a toll.

 



After much convincing and his stubborn nature being adamant that he finish writing her eulogy, dad WALKED down to the ER of the hospital. Within minutes he was having a heart cath. I quietly heard my sisters talking outside my room. I knew something was up (my sisters NEVER talk quietly). I asked my husband to get me out of this bed and see what was going on. As I waddled to the door I heard things like, "There is too much blockage"..."They can't cath him"... "Bypass surgery as soon as the cardio-thoracic surgeon can do it which would be the following am."

Dustin and I had an important decision to make: cancel Claudie's service or go on with it and know that dad wouldn't be there. The papers had already run by now and more importantly than that I knew we couldn't plan two funerals at once. I looked at Dustin and said let's bury our daughter in case we have to end up burying my dad too. Dustin felt that was the right thing to do.

I can never remember a time wherein I felt more COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY OVERWHELMED.

While my dad endured hours of what we thought would be a triple bypass surgery, we drove around town ordering our daughter's casket, flowers, and planning the services. My sister was giving us constant updates via text. We arrived back at the hospital just in time for the surgeon to update us. "Your father needed a quadruple bypass. He had 2 valves with 90%+ blockage, one with 98%blockage and the final with 100% blockage!!" The one with 100% was just centimeters from the "widow-maker" and even hours longer would have resulted in his death. The cardiologist told me later that there is no way he could have endured the funeral of his granddaughter and even one more day would have most assuredly resulted in his death. He said it was miracle he was at hospital and that everything fell into place as it had. MIRACLE INDEED!

I honestly believed with every fiber of my being when he left to the ER he was going to die. Most men don't live long past their wives and I thought this was it. As the days and weeks went on and he recovered so nicely I began to understand something, the little girl who he had held and wept so loudly over SAVED HIS LIFE!

 



A few weeks after we lost Claudette, something inside me clicked that I needed to take care of MYSELF or my fate would be similar to my mom's and I would not be here for my children on earth. I had lived 22 years with a disease in which was killing me and I was ignoring it's control over me.

As guilty as it makes me feel to say it my daughter saved my life too!

But little Claudie didn't just save my physical life, she saved me spiritually. Through her death, I have come to understand the bounds of death and life and the sanctity of both. She has made Christ more real and heaven more tangible.

 

***This post was inspired by the fact when I logged on to computer today it said congratulations over 25,000 people have read your blog. But it isn't my blog, it is my little superhero's Claudette Elyse's story written for her from above.

My daughter the SUPERHERO!!!