When I turned fifty I understood how cars feel when their warranties expire. If cars feel anything when their warranties expire.
On December 9, 2015, two months after my fiftieth birthday, I ended up in the hospital with a kidney infarction. I felt slightly upset — and also slightly betrayed — that the odometer had barely rolled over and a major system went on the blink.
But it did, and there I was, for four days, mostly reading and watching TV between nurses’ visits to draw blood, take my blood pressure, and check the heart monitor hanging around my neck.
I assured my parents in Laredo that I was fine. I was already annoyed that there seemed to be no real point in my staying in the hospital day after day. Well, besides the fact that I was under observation to make sure nothing else went wrong.
They were worried and wanted to come to San Antonio right away. I told them that nothing had changed since the CAT scan that showed the infarction. Things hadn’t gotten worse. The doctor wasn’t sure how long I would have to stay in the hospital. There was no place for my parents to stay indefinitely, so I told them that if they wanted to come up, it would probably be better to wait till they let me out.
My dad, in particular, was anxious to get up to SA. He hadn’t yet been diagnosed with the cancer that would take his life — that day wouldn’t come until the end of January — but I think he already knew time was running out. I didn’t understand his urgency.
On Saturday, when I learned the doctor would discharge me after one final check, I called my parents. My brother drove them up in the cold drizzly dim afternoon, and they sat in the hospital room with me as the discharge process dragged on to my freedom.
Now, more than a year later, and almost a year that he’s been gone, I am still struck by the fact that Dad wanted to come up to see me. I don’t know why that stays with me, and occasionally I think about it. Why wouldn’t a father want to make sure his son was all right after a health scare, regardless of age? I suppose I thought he wouldn’t worry so much after so long.
I was wrong. I will always be glad I was.
They went back to Laredo that night, after getting me home and making sure I was settled in. That is something else that stays with me: How lucky I was at this stage of my life, that as frail as he was by then, as much as traveling wore him out, my dad was willing to make that round trip to make sure that I was okay. My dad still wanted to make sure I was okay when I was in the hospital.
My wish is that everyone at any age would have their parent look out for them like that.
