When the Child Becomes the Parent

As I left off from my last post, I had just received a message from my mom stating that my dad’s bleeding had not stopped and they needed to head to Madison. As my dad takes blood thinner, this is no easy fix. Additionally, this was his eye we were talking about. So many thoughts and emotions at this time…

-Was my dad going to be ok?
-Was he going to lose sight in his eye?
-How were we going to get to Madison? And where would we go in Madison once we got there?
-How was I going to explain this to my girls?
-And (selfishly) what about the rest of our trip to the Dells?

I am an only child and have always been a Daddy’s girl. Now, my invincible father was now hurt. And my mom needed me to help. We needed to figure out a plan. But where to start? All of my solutions only had more questions?
-Would it be easier for Dad to go back to Des Moines?
-Could he make it in the car for that long without bleeding again?
-Should we head home too?
-How do we get a rental car in southern Wisconsin on a Sunday morning?

After much debate and many calls between doctors and hospitals, it was decided that my parents would get a rental car and head back home to see my dad’s eye doctor. This led to hours (yes, literally hours) of my husband and I on the phone searching for an open rental car place. HA! Madison was the only viable option and that was an hour in the wrong direction. Plus, my parents had never needed to rent a car, so this was another concern. 

Then came the guilt – should we go home and cancel the rest of our vacation? Would it be any fun without my parents? My dad became so upset when we told him we were headed home, he started to cry. And that is something I couldn’t take.

So, with prayers and heavy hearts, we headed to the Dells. And my mom and dad headed home.

Luckily, everything turned out ok with my dad. But I realized that my parents are growing older. And maybe I have to grow up too.

But I don’t want to…

Jean Anne