2008 The Year From Hell

2008 The Year of Hell


This past year has been quite a challenge. Nine months into the year, and our family has had 9 major hospitalizations, and more than 25 trips to the emergency room, as well as a super bug infection to show for all that time in the hospital. The emergencies continued right down the line to the very end of the year when my Mother dislocated her artificial hip for the second time in 6 months on the day after Christmas. This of course; required yet another ambulance call and day in the Emergency Room. To be followed by a fall off the top bunk on New Years Eve that necessitated another visit to Urgent Care for one of my granddaughters. All of this along with extra visits to have various tests run, and numerous doctor appointments. There is yet another surgery on the horizon. I have gotten to the point that I recognize hospital personnel at 3 different hospitals! Worse yet they are even recognizing me!

My husband started out the year with a lump on his neck and it has been like musical ambulances ever since! To be fair, our parents live close by and are in their 80’s, so some of this is to be expected I guess. We also have 9 active grandchildren. I suppose with that many people some things are bound to happen, but it seems to me that I have spent a freakishly abnormal amount of time visiting people I love in medical facilities.

While all of the medical emergencies alone would have been plenty to deal with, the normal or in some cases maybe not so normal family struggles continued. I assume all families have them, but I only see mine from the inside so I am never quite sure. We had our adult children and some of the grandchildren moving back in temporarily. My youngest daughter was graduating from High School and getting ready to start college. I was having flashes of empty nest syndrome even though my nest was quite full. On top of all that I am right smack in the middle of menopause with all of the lovely new sensations that come with this stage of life. The most special being those God awful hot flashes that seem to come directly from hell! As if that was not enough, we nervously watched the television coverage of Hurricane Ike as it made landfall and traveled a familiar route right up the interstate less than 10 miles from the homes of my sister and brother! I made telephone calls to check on them until the cell phone coverage was lost. Then you wait to see if everyone is ok. Luckily we heard from them the following day when the cell phone god allowed the connection to go through. They were all fine and had very little actual damage to their properties. Having seen the devastation that other areas so close to them suffered on the news coverage that day I am so grateful that things turned out the way that they did. Although some of the places that we loved to go, like Galveston and Crystal Beach, to relax and find some peace in all the chaos did not fare as well. It was sad to realize that our visit to those places just two months ago was the last time that we will ever see the things that were there. It will be back, but it will be a long time in the making and it will be different, with new places and slightly a different landscape. I’m glad I was able to take my youngest daughter and granddaughters with me to see one of my favorite places.

For awhile it was overwhelming, I wondered how I was going to get through all of it with my sanity intact. Things would seem to be calming down, getting ready to have a nice relaxing dinner and the telephone would ring. (What is it about dinner time that triggers emergencies?) Ringing of the telephone becomes something that strikes fear in your heart when you hear it. Sounds of sirens prompt calls to loved ones just to make sure everything is ok. I actually became fairly paranoid waiting for the latest catastrophic event to fall upon me.

Lately however I am calm. I think that I may finally be learning that when you pray for God to take over because you realize that there just is not anything more that you can do, it is never good form to change your mind 15 minutes after you ask and demand that he give it back to you as He is just not handling it correctly.


I think I am going to round up all my pictures from this past year, especially the ones that I took of everyone in the hospital. (Yeah I know, there is something really weird about hospital pictures.) Once I get them all together I am going to scrapbook all of those pictures into a special album titled “2008 MY YEAR OF HELL” The good part about this past year is that I have learned so much. I know that I can’t make the world what I want it to be. Not even my little piece of it. The realization that I am not in control is actually comforting. That also means that I am not responsible for fixing any of it. I know that there are people in my life who I will love forever, but that there is no way I can possibly know how long they will be around so that I can tell them that I love them. I have learned that me beating myself up because I can’t be all things for everyone is a waste of time. It leaves me free to do things that I can to help, but not sacrifice my own life in the process. I am learning that I am not faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and I cannot leap over tall buildings in a single bound. I am not super anything. I am sure there are more lessons to be learned, but hopefully I have become more willing to learn those lessons and less stubborn along the way.

There have also been wonderful moments in this roller coaster year. There have been so many moments when my grandchildren have done the cutest things. As well as moments; when each of their smiles made even the saddest times bearable. Hugs from grandchildren can be the best medicine in the world. I learned that when I needed them, my daughters were all there to help. They all went out of their way in one way or another to make life easier. I realized once again, how much my husband really means to me. After all these years he is still my rock. He can put his arms around me and make the world a calmer place. Maybe, that year of hell has served a purpose after all. So on we go to face another day. Only God knows what challenges await us, but I will go into it with the knowledge that I am not alone.