Father’s Day
It was Father’s Day. My mother, my friend Danielle and I went to go visit my dad for Father’s Day. My parents got divorced when I was a child so we had to drive an hour to go see him in Carnegie, Oklahoma. I tried calling him before we showed up but he did not answer. Since he did not answer we decided to drop by my uncle’s, his brother, house to check and see if my father was there. He wasn’t. Since he wasn’t there we continued on to his house. We got to his house and his car was out front. I walked inside with my gift for him. I called for him and he didn’t answer. I went back in his room and he was asleep. At the time he worked 3 jobs so it wasn’t a surprise.
We decided to let him sleep and watch some TV. Titanic was on. It wasn’t very long after we turned the TV on that he came walking down the hallway with a smile. We sat and talked for about 5 minutes and then I notice that their was a quickly moving shadow on the glass patio doors. You couldn’t see through the doors at all. It was a light shadow and then various dark shadows moving all around. I mentioned it to my dad and he went to check and see what was going on. He opened the patio door and that’s when the realization hit. It wasn’t just shadows. It was smoke. As soon as he opened the door all the smoke came pouring in along with the flames of a raging fire. That when he slammed the patio door shut and ran out the front door. We all ran after him confused and in shock. We ran around the house to the patio and saw that the wood patio, hot tub, and deep freeze was on fire. All of a sudden my dad runs through the smoke and the fire to get to the water faucet and water hose. The water faucet was right next to the patio door. He is able to turn everything on, run out, and gave the water hose to my mom that way she would start putting out the fire. While she was doing that my dad and I grabbed buckets and started throwing buckets of water onto the fire.
Pretty soon the fire was out. We all finally took a breath and looked around. Then my mom had this look on her face. She turned to me and said “Brianna, you need to get your dad to the hospital, now”. She is a nurse so she sounded very calm and collected. It sounded more like an order than her being scared. I looked at my dad and the outer layer of his skin on his legs was falling off and the stuff that was left on his legs was almost pure white. His shirt and shorts were almost completely burned off. There was no questioning her order. Danielle, my dad and I jumped in the truck.
I drove my dad to the hospital while my mom stayed behind and waited for the fire department to get there and clear the fire. I felt like I couldn’t drive fast enough. Apparently, I was actually driving too fast. He actually turned to me and told me to slow down. We got to the hospital and my dad got up out of the truck and walked himself in. As soon and he layed down I went in the hallway of the ER and just paced back and forth and sat on floor. I guess my brain was still trying to process everything. I don’t even remember my family showing up to the hospital. Not to long after we got there, the ER staff decided that he needed to be flown to Integris in Oklahoma City.
My dad was at Integris for 30 days. Whenever I first showed up to the Burn Unit ICU he was on a ventilator and had bandages all over him. He had to be sedated. While he was at Integris he had a couple of skin grafts and had been given multiple units of blood. They were very hopeful that all of his burns would heal. Our problem was that he took in a lot of toxic smoke. His lungs were not getting enough oxygen to his brain. His oxygen level was getting worse every day. My sister got married while he was in ICU. She wanted her dad to be there when she got married. He was getting worse. At this point they told us that if he recovered he wouldn’t be the same. There was too much damage to his brain.
It was the last day. All of our family was at Integris. We were circled around him. It happened so fast. The oxygen level was going down so fast. Then it just hit zero. Then his heart stopped.. My dad died July 19, 2011. Just after he had passed I ran outside. I don’t like to cry in front of people. As soon as I stepped out the front door it started raining. It wasn’t suppose to rain that day. I knew that the rain was my dad telling me everything was going to be okay. On the day of his funeral we were gathering up to head to the place his funeral was being held. Before everyone got in their cars the few clouds we had started to sprinkle out rain. It was almost completely sunny and raining at the same time. I grabbed my phone and looked at the radar and the rain wasn’t on there. Now I always feel my dad’s presence when it rains. There were so many people at the funeral. My dad was loved by so many. He touched so many lives.
The blood donation that my dad received helped us more than imaginable. Even though he was sedated the entire time he was at Integris, it gave us hope that he would pull through. It gave us more time with him. We needed that time. We used that time to talk to him, share stories, cry, go through our memories. It gave my sister the opportunity to marry the person she loves in the presence of her father. It gave us time to accept what was going on. It gave us closure. Before the accident I never even thought about donating. Now I try to donate as much as I can. That way I can try to help someone. Donating my blood could change someone’s life for the better.