In the midst of our busy lives, accidents can happen, hurricanes can sweep across islands, loved ones can suffer accidents and death. And then the races that we plan to run, however hard we trained for them, suddenly become irrelevant as we must turn to the most important things: praying for and helping those we love.
Last Tuesday, Martha's 58-year old brother Bill had a sudden heart attack and he was taken to the Charles George VA Medical Center near Asheville. He went into cardiac arrest, and an excellent team of doctors and nurses, Saints every one, kept him alive, watching over him day and night. We discovered that this hospital was the No. 1 VA hospital in the nation, and has been for five years, and we have met some of the finest people! Yesterday, for the first time, Bill opened his eyes, squeezed our hands, tried to talk (he still has a ventilator tube down his throat), nodded his head remembering a story about an old friend, and seemed almost to laugh when I joked that I was gong to have the elevator music in the background changed to Led Zeppelin. He has been in an induced coma since Tuesday and did not know we were there, but yesterday he did. And more important, we knew he was there!
So we pray that Bill Lewis will recover, and we climb in the car and drive to the hospital once again to take up vigil and be here for him. So this race, the focus of my blog for nearly two months, is on the back burner. There will be other races, but there is only one Bill.
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