Where I've Been... part 1

Last Wednesday I got a call from my Grandma (ex- step- actually, but the best grandma I ever had). She was obviously upset and probably crying. My first thought was that something had happened with Grandpa. Grandpa is really old and has one carotoid artery completly blocked and the other is about 95% blocked. Doctors are amazed that he is still going. But it wasn't Grandpa, it was my ex- stepfather who was in trouble.

Last year my grandparents moved to South Carolina to be close to their youngest son, my uncle. He is doing well there and bought them a condo and looks after them. The thing is their other son, my ex-stepfather, lives here in Indiana still. He is an alcoholic, 50 years old and has been out of work for 6 months due to a back injury. My brother and I are the only ones who are here in the same town as him. Which leads us back to the distressed phone call I got from my grandmother.

Me: Hello?

Grandma: J----? I couldn't get ahold of B---- (my sister who lives an hour and a half away) or S----n (my brother) so I called you. St---- is at Regional Hospital and they are going to life line him to Indianapolis.

Me: What happened?

Grandma: He's been really sick, J----. They think he is going into shock. Can you get to the hospital? There is no one there.

Me: Ok, yeah. Umm, my van is in the shop but I will get a ride.

Grandma: Ok, hurry.

I called my husband and had him come home from work to stay with the kids and so I could take his car. While I was waiting, I saw the medic helicopter fly over head towards the hospital. (I live very close to it.) As soon as my husband was out of the car, I was in it, his keys and all.

I got there in plenty of time, there is a lot of stuff involved in getting someone transfered and actually on the helicopter, especially when no one is really sure what is wrong with the patient.

He looked awful. His forehead and around his eyes was so swollen that contrast with his chin made his head look skeletal. His eyes were almost swollen closed. His coloring wasn't right either. They had like 5 bags hanging running into 2 IVs, one in each arm. He was hooked up to monitors. It was pretty scary.

I wonder what he thought when he saw me. We are not close at all. In fact, when I was a child, I was subjected to abuse by him. He was an alcoholic and a drugie and I watched him beat the crap out of my mom on more than one occasion. Later on he sexually mollested me. Leaving him was the best thing my mom ever did. But, he is my brother and sister's dad. And they were too small to really remember much of what happened. And his mom *IS* my grandma, no matter what anyone says, our birthdays are a day apart and I was always very close to her. And I've grown up and gotten past the hate I felt for him; it did take some time. He used to buy me Christmas and Birthday presents long after my mom divorced him. I always figured he had a certain measure of guilt about stuff that motivated him. And when I was 19, pregnant and stupid enough to wind up in jail for shop lifting, he was the one who posted my bail. I remember him saying that jail was no place for a pregnant woman. So as time passed, wounds healed. And now, here I was, the only person close enough to come to the hospital in his hour of need. Fate is a comedianne.

to be continued....