Personal Soapbox: One afternoon in 1959 (the end of sixth grade for me), I came home from school to find my daddy sitting on my bedside with mom standing beside him. He had tears in his eyes and mom was visibly crying. This was frightening to an 11 yr old girl. They, then, proceeded to tell me that my beloved daddy had cancer and was going to die. I refused to talk about it to anyone and refused to accept it. He entered M.D. Anderson as a human test subject in a program to test new medicines and procedures. They only accepted patients with a life expectancy of 6 months or less. He had to stay at the Houston hospital for several months and would only be allowed out on day pass every couple of weeks, depending on the tests they were conducting at the time. For two years, we would go to Houston every weekend. The only person that knew was my algebra teacher, Mrs. Jarrett. The only reason she knew was because I had to explain why I had not done my weekend assignment. At the end of my eighth grade year it had become obvious that daddys testing days were coming to an end. He had shrunken from 230 lbs. to a little less than 100 lbs. At this point, M.D.A. had released him to the care of our family doctor, Dr. Orrill. Daddy, realizing that he would be leaving mom with two minor children to raise, moved us to a farm in Louisiana. I told no one where we were going and said no goodbyes, still refusing to accept that my daddy was dying. The days passed. He bought a bigger farm and proceeded to have the house refurbished (built in 1890) so that we could move into it as quickly as possible. Daddy entered St. Mary Hospital in August, 1962 and continued to hold on to life with every breath, fully conscious. On November 19, after the doctor left the room, he looked at mom and said, You know, Momma, I think the old doc is giving up on me. All his tissue was depleted (he weighed 86 lbs) and the IV fluids were going into his lungs. On Thanksgiving morning, November 22, 1962 at 7:15 a.m., I finally had to accept the unbelievable. Daddy was gone. I still miss him and sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday that all this happened. Today is one of those days.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 19:02:55 +0000