The Days Leading Up to Today:

On Thursday, September 17th, Micah played with the Choctaw High School Band during the Yellowjackets football game at Putnam City. Because it was an away game, the band was to perform their halftime show after the game. As we neared the end of the game Micah was looking really tired so we opted to go on home instead of staying.

Then on Friday, Micah chose to stay with Mark instead of going to school. This is extremely unusual. Micah loves school. He thrives in the atmosphere of school with all of his faculty and student friends.

During these days, our family has experienced multiple stressful circumstances. The first involved Tanya’s husband Doug. A week earlier, Doug found out he had a large brain tumor. Two days later he had surgery to remove the tumor in an attempt to prolong his life. Unfortunately, Doug slipped into a coma on Saturday and by Friday, September 18th, he lost his very short battle with cancer.

Micah and I stayed home over the weekend while Mark helped with the grief process and funeral preparations. However, to add to our emotional load, my dad called late Sunday afternoon to tell me my mom had had a stroke. Mark stayed with Micah Sunday evening while I drove to Enid to check on Mom.

My mom was at Bass Integris Hospital in Enid. She was suffering from slow mental processing and difficulty speaking. She was also experiencing weakness on her left side. I stayed the night at the hospital with her but drove back home early Monday morning. But before I left I told her, next time you need some mother-daughter time let do something fun!

By the time I had returned home Mark had scheduled a doctor’s appointment for Micah in the Adolescent Clinic at OU Children’s Medical Center. So before we headed to the hospital , I went up to the school to organize lesson plans for a substitute for Monday’s doctor’s appointment and the funeral on Tuesday.

By the way, Mark was supposed to be gone to New York City on a church mission trip with several other adults from our church.