Sunday, August 10 2025, started out like any other Sunday. I got up, got ready for church and headed out the early service. The one thing that sticks out about church that morning was seeing a man who had collapsed in our lobby and needed an ambulance the week before was back in church, looking as if nothing had even happened. I remember being in awe of the way God heals and restores.
After church, I went to the store to grab some kind of dessert. Our church was having a fish fry at a local park and I had signed up to bring a dessert. My dad was going to come down from Dubois and we were going to lunch, but I still wanted to take a desert because I had signed up and didn't want them to be short. I talked to a friend of mine there and she asked why I wouldn't be staying and I told her about my dad coming.
We talked for a few minutes and then I headed to the restaurant to meet my dad. He had texted that morning and said he wanted fish tacos so I headed to a local Mexican restaurant. As much as I don't like fish, my dad loved it. Fish tacos at La Luna were his favorite and we ate there often. Most weeks we were Sunday-after-church regulars. Nothing about lunch sticks out, that's how ordinary it was. My dad was supposed to come down the day before to help work on my car but hadn't felt good so he stayed home and came Sunday. He assured me he was feeling much better and ate his whole lunch without complaint.
When we finished, we decided to meet at my house. I was going to stop at the house of my littles and bring some of them home with me. One llama in particular LOVED helping my dad work on things and we knew she would get a kick out of 'helping' him work on my car. Once I got to their house, however, none of them wanted to go with me. It was the first of a handful of 'God things' that would happen that day. That was the first time ever that they didn't want to come to my house and I'm so thankful. If they had, they would have seen everything that was to come.
Since I was kidless, I decided to stop at a local coffee shop to get my dad and myself iced coffees. I drove home and pulled up to find my dad sitting on the steps going up to my door which I thought was a little odd because he usually would have already had the garage open and started on my car. He told me he didn't feel good and said he needed to lay down on my couch. I got him settled on the loveseat and he asked for some Aleve. He said his chest hurt and I remember scolding him not to take the Aleve with his coffee! He laid on the couch for a few minutes and then moved to the floor where he could stretch out. I asked him what was wrong, specifically, and he wouldn't tell me. All he would say is that his chest hurt. I asked him if he wanted me to call an ambulance and his response was, "I don't have insurance." If you knew my dad, you would understand why that would be on the forefront of his mind.
Meanwhile my dogs, who were outside, started barking like crazy. Feeling a little frustrated with my dad since he wouldn't tell me what was wrong so I could help, I went outside to see what was going on. I found a German Shorthaired Pointer I had never seen before over by my chicken coop. As I got closer I could see he had killed a couple of chickens. Normally I would have been irritated and mad but here was another 'God thing.' Because he was a bird dog, he ran over to me and dropped the chicken at my feet, SO proud of himself! I couldn't help but laugh as his little stub of a tail was wagging crazy and he had that smile on his face that dogs get. I grabbed his collar and saw his name was Drake. That also made me smile as one of my favorite littles I watched in years past was a boy named Drake. I chained him up in my front yard and called the number on his collar. I went back inside and my dad was still laying on the floor, conscious and alert, but still wouldn't tell me what was wrong. So I went outside and met with the Drake's owner. He apologized profusely and paid me some money for the dead chickens and then took his pup and left.
I went back inside and tried again to get my dad to tell me specifically what was hurting and how I could help him. I asked him if he could get up and walk and I would drive him to the ER. He didn't answer and a motion he made with his hand that made me think he was having a seizure. I rolled him onto his back (I know, I know. You're supposed to roll them on their side but I wasn't thinking clearly.) I told him I didn't care what he wanted, I was calling the ambulance. After speaking to the dispatcher and giving her my address, God impressed upon my heart to call my friend Hazel and ask her to pray. She prayed over the phone with me and said she could hear the sirens and told me they were coming.
I went outside to wait for the ambulance as I heard them turn on my road. As the ambulance was backing into my driveway, I noticed another car speeding up the road with dirt billowing everywhere. Not recognizing the car, I wondered if it was an off-duty deputy that heard the call come over the scanner and came to help. When the car pulled in my driveway, I realized it was Hazel's husband Tyler. In another 'God thing,' she must have called him after hanging up with me. He gave me a hug and then helped the EMTs as they worked on my dad. While he had looked normal to me, they took his outer shirt off and I noticed he was sweating profusely and looked clammy. By this point he was still conscious but not really responding. He was fighting the EMTs and they had to keep telling him they were trying to help him. Tyler helped them get him outside and onto the stretcher. I tousled his hair and told him he was going to be okay.
As the EMT was getting him settled in the ambulance, I asked Tyler if he had been at the fish fry. I told him he could go ahead a leave since there was nothing else he could do at that point but he said he would go to the hospital with me. After the ambulance pulled out my driveway, I called my brothers to tell them what was happening. My older brother, who lives in Arizona, asked me to keep him updated as did my brother who lived locally.
As I followed the ambulance to the hospital wih my hazards flashing, I called my grandma, a former EMT. I explained what happened and told her my biggest fear was that he would be Life Flighted and I didn't know how I would get to wherever they took him. I told her I would keep her updated and continued the drive to the hospital behind the ambulance.
(Part 2 will follow soon...even though I've replayed the events of this day in my head a million times, I didn't realize it would take so long to write out!)
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