With a lift of his glass of egg-nog, my husband wished us all a Merry Christmas. They were the last happy words I heard from him for over a week.
Quickly he set his glass down and headed for the bedroom.
“Got to get this sweater off … it’s really warm in here,” he said.
I followed behind him and turned at the kitchen to check the coffee. On my return he was standing in the hallway and I reached up to give him an affectionate pat.
He was wringing wet!
Somehow I knew instantly what was wrong and called out to our visitors.
“We’ve got to get this man right to the hospital. He’s having a heart attack!”
When I think back, there were nearly a half dozen miracles that happened simultaneously.
First, my husband had been down town fifteen minutes earlier and could have been alone in the car when this happened…and it was -38C.
Second, our friends had arrived minutes before, otherwise I would have been alone…a rather frightening experience.
Third, our hospital is nearby and we were there in eight short minutes.
Fourth, my husband was able to receive and benefit from Streptokinase, one of the new miracle drugs.
And last but not least, a quick call to our minister activated a prayer-chain of committed Christians.
For the three days he was in I.C.U. I experienced “the peace that passes understanding”. It is unexplainable and if you have experienced it you will know exactly what I mean. I had absolutely no fear of the future and felt God’s very presence.
The event changed our lives completely and shortly thereafter, we no longer had the stress of owning a business, there were no more ongoing meetings as an alderman at city hall, “cigar-breath” immediately became a thing of the past and our eating and living habits included a healthier diet and a daily walk.
It all sounds so simple now but it was hard work. There is a difficult balancing act between the spouse and the survivor. We had to change a lifetime of bad habits and it was hard to know when to be concerned and when to be quiet. At one point I hid the heavy metal snow shovels and bought smaller plastic ones. Grocery shopping took ages as I read every scrap of information on the box… an obsession that eventually wore off. Years later, we laughed together about my trying to feed him dandy-lion greens, as I had heard they we very good for you. He really was a good sport.
When I reflect on the multi-miracles of that December night, I am awed by the faithfulness of God. He was ever present.
And…we learned how much more to appreciated the gift of life, after we were given this special “second chance”.
