Father and Son

Last Sunday was Father’s Day. This is a day that means a lot to me because I have the privilege of being a father! My kids are grown now so I don’t get to see them as much as I once did.

This last week I was visiting the area where my kids and family live. I had a grand plan all worked out; the family and friends I was going to visit and the activities I was going to do. One of the main activities, early in the week, was spending time with my kids for Father’s Day. We had been planning for months to see Jurassic World as we are all big fans of that movie series.

We purchased our tickets, picked out our movie treats and had found some great seats right in the theater’s sweet spot. Heaven! I had turned off my ringer on my phone but I felt it vibrate just as the last couple of trailers were playing. I looked at the number, didn’t recognize it and waited to see if a message would be left.

I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that there was a message left. It was from the place where my mom lives. It seems she had fallen. This is rather big deal as my mom is in her nineties.

At any rate, I stepped out of the theater and returned the call. The person I talked to stated that the paramedics were there and were in the process of transporting mom to the hospital but the person wasn’t sure which one. I asked her to call me back once she knew.

Now the tough part. I was highly concerned about mom but I also knew I had just lost Father’s Day with my kids. From a father’s perspective, this was a terrible blow as I hadn’t seen the kids for a long while and we had been looking forward to this Father’s Day for many months.

It was time to be a son though. I went back in the theater and let them know what was going on and headed for the car (they stayed and watch the movie and loved it). After learning which hospital mom was going to, I headed there.

Mom ended up breaking her hip and having surgery to repair it. She spent five days in the hospital and is now in rehab. It will be six weeks before she can put her full weight back on her leg. Her life has changed again. Two years ago it was a stroke that she fought back from. Now she gets to fight back from a broken hip. She has a way of winning these fights.

What makes the story more interesting is normally my sister handles these sorts of situations but she was out of town so I had the opportunity to experience handling the situation instead. I had to be a son, a rock, a coach, a cheerleader, an organizer, a comforter. I had to be involved in choices that kids never want to have to make when it comes to their parents. I survived and am the stronger for it. Mom survived as well and is the stronger for it.

Through it all, I was able to be a son again and my mom was able to be a mom and spend more hours with her son than she has since I lived at home so many years ago. There were ups and downs in the journey this last week but a son and a mom now have a stronger bond than they have had in many years.

Gifts come in many shapes and sizes. In this case, what started out as a father that was incredibly sad because he didn’t get the opportunity to have Father’s Day with his kids ended up having an incredibly special time being a son and spending time with his mother and helping her through the start of a tough journey.

Time is a gift, a gift filled with urgency as we get older, a gift that can appear unexpectedly and a gift that keeps giving to the journey we all call life.