Life

Life is very strange. Sometimes we do not fully appreciate it. I got a full dose of that, these past 24 hours.

As we wind down, these last few days were supposed to have focused on closing things up and moving to my parents. As the saying goes, "Man plans and G-d laughs." As many of you are aware, my father was rushed to the hospital on Tuesday afternoon with a condition that was not easily discernible. As the evening progressed, his situation deteriorated more and more. Things did not look too good, so I consulted with Dr. Jerry Noble, the ER doctor (mensch and great guy, and my former Madrich in Mosh!) who suggested Tehillim at this point. I sent out my own plea for Tehillim as did many other people with large lists. My daughters, nieces and some of their friends went to the Shul to recite the entire book of Tehillim. The outpouring of emails, tehillim, phone calls, text messages etc was overwhelming to me. I was hearing from people all over the world.

As the night wore on, I needed to get back home to continue our final stages of packing and to collapse into bed for SOME sleep. Needless to say, I did not sleep very well: thinking about my dad...thinking about finishing up on the house...thinking about the house closing on Thursday...thinking...thinking...thinking. And praying the phone would not ring in the middle of the night.

Thank G-d the phone did NOT ring in the middle of the night. Instead, my sister called in the early morning with some good news...BP was up and he was looking a bit better. However, we still did not know what the source of the infection was!

My day was spent going back and forth to the hospital for short times, visiting the dentist (!) for a much needed repair before Aliya,dropping things off at my parents, bringing things back to the places from where we borrowed items, getting the pants I needed altered (after losing 35 pounds BH...on purpose over the past 8 months), going to the bank...and that was all before 5pm!

As pressure kept building, there was a ray of hope. Seems that the test my dad took mid-afternoon may indeed hold the key. Within an hour of this test (no medical details here), it became clear that the doctors had indeed located the source of the infection and did what was necessary to remove the cause. At present, he is resting comfortably, albeit not doing 100%...but MUCH better than 24 hours ago. (When I told him that the hairplugs the doctors tried to put in did not "take," he managed a smile!)

So...I am praying that the only excitement of the next 24 hours is the closing on our home. I do not think I could handle more than that right now. Then, it will almost be time for our last Shabbat here in Chicago...spent with most of the family...and more than likely a stroll on Shabbat to visit my dad.

I WANT TO THANK ALL OF THOSE WHO DAVENED, SAID TEHILLIM, CALLED, MESSAGED, ETC ETC...I acknowledge all the working of Hashem in this and thank Hashem from the bottom of all of our hearts. May He repay the kindness to you, that you have shown my dad and our entire family.

Uh oh...I just looked at the clock...we are really about to make Aliya! From now, it is another 3 days 14 hours and 4 minutes until we leave the city. TICK...TICK...TICK!!!!!!!