Five Minute Friday: Learning to be Present

This post is part of the Five Minute Friday blog link-up. It’s an opportunity to join up with a community of writers and bloggers of all ages and stages who gather around a single word prompt to free-write, unscripted and unedited, for five minutes.

This week’s prompt :: {Present}

In June of this year, my mom had a heart attack. My dad watched helplessly as she checked herself into the hospital, at that point in increasing pain but uncertain of the cause. No one, including my dad, was allowed inside the hospital. He had to sit and wait…and sit and wait. Of course, the doctors quickly diagnosed the issue, and the resolution was a relatively standard procedure. 

By the time my dad called me with the news, my mom was feeling much better, and while I couldn’t go see her, I talked to her on the phone. She sounded great and voiced little concern. But here’s the deal. As the doctors were wrapping things up and telling her the procedure went well, my mom began experiencing significant pain. Turns out, there was a complication, and it was almost five hours later before we knew anything at all. 

Back before COVID was a word the world knew, my dad would have been by my mom’s side from start to finish. He would have been there to hear the news, to advocate for her when she suffered the effects of the anesthesia gone wrong. A hospital visit would have included a gathering of friends and family. Instead, my mom found herself alone, and the people that love her the most–me and my dad–were left wondering and waiting. 

Helpless is the best word to describe how we felt. I sat in the parking lot waiting and praying, trying to position my heart for whatever news would follow, and it was in that moment that I realized the importance of being present. Being present for my dad when my head went to dark places, and I prepared myself for the worst. 

I’m thankful my family’s story has a happy ending, that my mom went home and recovered, but that drive to “show up,” to be present for my parents, has not left me. It was a sobering experience, and it made me face the reality that my parents are aging. I don’t want to waste another moment. I want to be purposeful and present in whatever days remain.

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