Well, sometimes that whole stomach punch is followed by a round house kick. Sometimes you see it coming and sometimes you don’t. I for one am slow and bumbling, so things often hit me with out warning. In this case, it is my mom having a heart attack and being rushed to the hospital last night, with me 6 hours away. Nothing like the feeling of being kicked upside your head and then walking around stunned for the next few moments. When you come to, there is an awful lot of tears and in particular cases, the ability to hyperventilate on command.

At the height of this unrestrained panic, I was lucky enough to have my Aunt, Cuz and soon to be ex husband to really talk to me and calm me enough to breath.

When some measure of calm came back, I was able to talk to the kids without freaking them out ( I hope) and instead, I turned into the “big sister” telling them all would be fine, mom is strong, they need to stick together, I am here, they can call me whenever etc. etc. My aunt talked to the hospital and she then called me. I then called the kids and then called Aunt Jane back, the kids called me again, and right at the moment I thought my eyes would finally close, the hospital called me.

For now, mom is in ICU. She is stable, she has a stint, she has a temporary pacemaker and some sort of balloon thing that does something I don’t get. She has not seen the surgeon and I have not spoken to my mom yet so I don’t have much more to tell. If you read this, can you please throw a little prayer her way? If you are not a prayer, maybe some good juju? No good juju? How about a kind thought or two. That would be super appreciated.