Notre Dame was in a bowl game. There was food, wine & fun with some of my family. My husband and I had been married two months & I was excited to spend the evening watching football with him. (My how things change three years later).
My dad was two months into treatment for cancer. Chemo had taken it’s toll on him and he had spent a lot of time in the hospital, 3.5 hours away. Daily phone calls & almost weekly trips kept us close and in touch. We texted throughout the day but always made sure to catch up at night.
On December 29th I called him on my lunch break. He had a few friends in the room so I told him I would call him back that evening during the game.
Around 8pm that night he texted me and said we will catch up tomorrow, he was tired and he didn’t want to take me away from the party. He was coming home from the hospital the next day.
If there is one text message in my life I could go back and time to ignore, I wish it was that one.
The next day he wound up in the ICU with more complications. By 11pm that evening the nurse in the ICU told us they didn’t expect him to make it through the night.
My last conversation with my dad was “enjoy the game”.
There is no greater regret that I have in life than not picking up the phone that night.
No one knew what was going to happen the next day. Life is funny like that. Every time you think things are back on track, they throw you a curve ball.
My dad passed away on December 31st, 2011. Two days after our last text message conversation.
Not picking up the phone that day changed everything for me.
I will not go more than a day without talking on the phone to my mom (when 5 or 6 years ago I would call once or twice a week). There is no better way to end a conversations with a loved one than by telling them how much I love them.
If I could turn the clocks back to change one decision in life, it would be on December 29th, 2011.
If you didn’t catch my first post, Rebecca from The Housewife Memoirs & I have challenged each other to keep up with a writing prompt from 1,000 Awesome Writing Prompts
This week’s prompt was:
14. You are given the chance to travel back to any point in your life to do things differently. What point do you choose? What do you do differently and how does it affect you now?