The bridges & the 24 years between them…
Several times in the past 6 months I’ve driven the 283/83 under the (322) bridge that leads to Hershey & Hershey Medical Center. Each time I think about that early morning drive from Florida, driving over that bridge, excited that we were finally almost at the hospital. Ivan was driving pretty fast, ready to get Kyle the attention he needed. This was one time I didn’t care how fast he went; I was ready to get there & figured if we did get stopped, we could get Kyle an escort to the hospital and get there faster. We had been in touch with the doctors at Hershy several times and let them know we would be arriving around 1:30 AM. I think about how driving across that bridge I had absolutely no idea that Kyle was living his last hours, that he was only 2 hours away from his heavenly homecoming. I would most certainly have switched seats & got in the back with him.
On Friday morning as we drove to Hershey we drove past the exit again and i was again reliving those last moments & thinking how crazy it is that we just have no idea when we, or someone we love, are in our last hours.
The route from Perry to Hershey on that first trip in 1998.
As I went farther up the road I came to another bridge, this one also leading from 322 to 39 and into Hershey Medical Center. And this time I was remembering another flying trip to Hershey just Ivan, Kyle & I, again late at night, and again trying to get Kyle to the hospital for the attention he needed which was also for his heart. These trips were 24 years & 4 weeks apart.
Wow! I am so thankful for those 24 years in between & the many sweet memories we made. I am so thankful for the miracles that took place in Kyles life that gave us that amount of time!!
You see when Kyle was born they later told us they only expected him to live 24-48 hours. God granted us 24 years!! I am forever grateful!!
On that first flying trip to Hershey Kyle was only 3 months old and hadnt yet had heart surgery to correct the heart disorder he had been born with.” Take him home & love on him”, they said, “we would like him to grow a bit.” So thats what we did, having no idea exactly how serious it all was. Because the cabin was the same distance to Hershey as our home was, should he need medical attention, we would travel to the cabin on the weekends at times. This particular weekend was the weekend of Thanksgiving and hunting season in which my entire family went to the cabin together. Kyle had been placed back on oxygen & his surgery had been scheduled for December 15’th. On our way to the Cabin on Friday we had stopped at the pediatrician for a regular checkup with his doctor only to find out his oxygen level were low & we needed to head to Hershey to see his Cardiologist. After spending several hours there to get Kyles levels back up and adjusting the oxygen flow to keep it there, they sent us off to the cabin to join the family already there. They also gave us an oximeter to monitor his oxygen. Things didn’t go to well and after to many low oxygen scares, alarm going off, many calls to Hershey we gathered around Kyles bed to pray & sang and finally I said I can’t take it anymore, we are taking him back to Hershey. Our family agreed to stay up praying until we got there safely. We called ahead and let them know we were bringing him in. We got there between midnight-1:00. They got Kyle settled into a room. The next day his doctor came in to examine him & they scheduled Kyle for emergency surgery the very next day, 2 weeks before he had been scheduled for. Kyle gave us several scares before & after surgery. It was definitely a miracle from God that Kyle came home 10 days later & lived another 24 years!
I.AM.TRULY.GRATEFUL. 💛