Facing Mortality
As I mentioned yesterday, we have had an emotional rollercoaster over the last two days. We spent Sunday afternoon at the Mariners game and got to watch them blow out the White Soxs 11-5. Then we spent Sunday evening in the emergency room at Harborview Medical Center.
We took the Sounder’s Home Run train service to the game after church Sunday (the only way to go the game, BTW). All six of us went, myself, Karin, the two kids, and Oma and Opa. It was very crowded on the train, and Opa and I ended up standing up for the trip into Seattle. We arrived at the game about an hour before it started, made our way into the stadium, and found our seats. We spent the next 3 1/2 hours cheering on the Mariners, eating hot dogs, and walking around with the kids, who just wanted to see the Mariner Moose.
As the game reached the 9th inning with the Mariners up by 6 runs, we decided to take off early and try to beat the crowd to the train so we could get ourselves some seats for the trip back. Fortunately we had taken one of the strollers, so we stuck Christopher, our slowpoke, into it and we took off around the stadium back toward the train station.
Our grand plan to beat the crowd didn’t work as the game got out just as we made it out of the stadium. But we took off anyway, me in the lead pushing Christopher, Oma following with Bethany in hand, and Karin and Opa bringing up the rear. We made it to the train and hopped onto the next to last car, but somewhere along the way, we had lost Opa. Not knowing where he had ended up, I whipped out my cell phone and gave him a call. He answered on the second call and told me he was on another car further up the train and would head back our way.
2 minutes later, the conductor ran onto the car we were sitting in, grabbed the Automatic Emergency Defibrillator and took off toward the front of the train. They made a couple announcements about the train’s departure being delayed due to a medical emergency. Still not having seen Opa, I started calling his cell again, but wasn’t getting an answer.
After 15 minutes of trying, his phone finally picked up. Only, it wasn’t Opa. It was one of the paramedics. Dad had had a heart attack. I quickly motioned to Oma to get off the train and get down to where the paramedics were so she could be with him on the trip to the emergency room. Karin and I were left to ride the train home with the kids and hope that everything would be alright. It was a nerve-wracking trip.
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