We left Washington, NC and headed toward Monroe, NC to my son’s house. The original plan was to arrive at his house on Nov 1; however, we got there two weeks early!
I called him on Oct 17, 2019 and said, “Looks like we’re going to be a few days earlier than Nov. 1…. He replied, “That’s fine.” I then said, “We’ll be there Thursday”… He replied, “THIS Thursday?” Oh yea son, We’re coming to a driveway near you! Hahaha! The kids have learned (maybe) to expect the UNexpected out of mom and stepdad. I don’t know, I guess you’d have to ask them.
You see, we stopped over at my son’s house for a couple weeks and then moved on to SC, our previous home state. I had some doctor’s appointments scheduled and we HAD to get the generator looked at – which was NOT working at this point, and to get some service work done on the Coach’s engine the first week in December. Those appt’s were set in stone, especially the Coach’s Generator service.
For the life of me, I can’t remember exactly where we were at this point. I think at our mechanics in Campobello, SC (our old home town).
We thought we were on track until I find out my dad was in the hospital on Nov 8, 2019. My dad had actually been in the hospital since November 1, 2019. My dad being in the hospital was something our family had experienced for the last 40 years but this time would be different – totally different. For the most part, Daddy always came out and recovered. He was a tough man. The toughest I’ve ever known.
On Monday, November 11, 2019 (while we were in SC waiting on our appt’s), my brother called and simply said, “You might want to haul-ass over here – it’s not good. I then get a text from my Sister-In-Law simply saying…. “Not good!”
I knew, just by their tones, this was going to be it and I needed to get there.
Over the years, I guess my folks kinda decided to follow my brother and sister-in-law to Knoxville. Also over the years my brother has always been the one talking me off the ledge when Daddy got sick or hospitalized. He was always saying, ” You’ll know when I say it’s time to get here. Right now is not the time”. So, when he called with the above message that I needed to get there – I got there! He wasn’t sugar coating it and he was doing me a favor. He was, in his way giving me the heads up that Daddy wasn’t recovering this time. Thank you brother!
I threw the basic essentials in a bag, rented a car, and headed to Knoxville, TN.