Pray For Jeff

My Dad is a great guy. He is very smart and well read and interesting, he loves to laugh and even laughed so hard at a party two years ago he had a heart attack and died and was revived all for a great joke, (he says it was totally worth it.) He is kind and nice and literally would do anything for anyone that asked him something. He marches to his own drum, (ok, he’s kinda weird) and always has but taught me everything I need to know. I grew up watching John Wayne movies, where I learned do unto others as you would have others do unto you, (for awhile I thought John Wayne was the first person who made that up.) Bob Newhart Show, laughter is the best medicine. We had long talks about poems by Robert Frost and different religions and history. Honesty, Hard work, integrity. He taught me to play baseball and about sportsmanship. When I was 9 he bought me a book called Siddhartha by Herman Hesse about the man who was to become Buddha. I was like really? I'm pretty sure 9 year olds don't read this stuff? I would much rather just watch Laverne and Shirley and can’t you just buy me Gloria Vanderbilt jeans like everyone else, we are so WEIRD! Looking back now, I wouldn’t change a thing.

My Dad, Jeff Frank, is back in St. Francis hospital today. (The best place for heart patients, he is so lucky to be there!) His defibrillator is faulty and it went off 8 times yesterday.  If you know anyone with a defib, you know that the shock it gives to your system when it goes off it is equivalent to (according to my Dad), being struck by a lightening bolt. He hits the deck every time and it is very painful. However, he is blessed and this is why I say that and so would he.

The first time it went off yesterday he was taking his daily constitutional around his neighborhood, he fell straight to the ground unable to move. His ex brother in law, Bruce, happened to be working at a house in the neighborhood Dad was taking his walk in and saw him laying on the side of the road. He stopped and called 911 and then my Dad who was conscious at this point asked him to call his sister Mary. For some reason he couldn’t get a hold of Mary so Bruce called his daughter Susie at home who happens to be an EMT person. Ambulance is on the way, Susie calls my stepmother Jessie and tells her, her father is on the side of the road with Jeff, police are there, ambulance on the way they will be taking him to Southampton Hospital so call Mary. Jessie calls Mary and Mary goes to see her brother straight away. Jessie calls me to tell me my Dad is on his way to the hospital and I am like, “Is he ok and by the way, how do you know?” Everyone was in the right place at the right time.

Some would say he is unlucky that he has all of these problems but how great is it that not only was he discovered quickly but by people who care and have an energetic connection to him? Even the policemen who came to the scene were the same guys who had responded to the 911 calls when my Dad previously went down, so now they were old friends. My friend Maribeth’s father in law and aunt have a connection to St.Francis and they ask about him and the people at the hospital are connected. (After my father’s last visit there he wrote a book called, The Angels of St .Francis, about the excellent care he got there by all the wonderful people who work there and are affiliated with the hospital) So, I am happy that everyone was where he or she was meant to be and dad will be back in action soon. Say a prayer and I will say one for you today as well. Peace!