Paradise

Isla Mujures Catamaran Day Trip!

Where is it?

We all dream of it. One day… I’m gonna quit this job, I’m gonna leave this rat race, I’m gonna leave this cold weather behind.

We plan for it, we save for it, we talk about it, we laugh about it, we plot big time with our friends and families and drink margaritas.

But where is it really?

Is it in Mexico? Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cancun, Playa del Carmen.

Last Tuesday at 4am I got the call on my cell phone. Fight or flight I was instantly awake. Didn’t even have to look to see who it was. I knew. Why else does the phone ring at 4am?

“Brenda I think your father is having a stroke!” the frantic words screamed by my Mom jolted through my body.

Then the begging begins while hopping around the bedroom looking for clothes to throw on, “Please God just let him be alive until I get there. Please God just let him be alive when I get there. Please God…”

He seizured for 15 minutes and was unconscious for 10 more. When he awoke he didn’t know anyone. Thank God for the neighbours. Thank God he awoke.

The ambulance took him to the first hospital and then onto the next in Cancun 12 hours later the same day. In one day he received more care and attention and testing (MRI, CAT scan, EEG, X-rays, blood work, liver testing etc) than he had received in Canada in the past 3 years. Minus the seizure, this wasn’t our first experience of this nature with Dad.

Ironically, we had to return to Paradise to get a diagnosis. So for my Dad & Mom maybe this is the place.

But for me, in that moment, it was wrapped up tightly in the heart of my father. The heart I prayed would keep beating. They say “home is where the heart is”. After this experience I would like to add that Paradise is where your heart is too.

All of the Caribbean white sand, aqua marine crystal clear water, golden sunshine, and Jimmy Buffet songs don’t amount to a hill of beans without the people you love to share them with.

When you’re done reading this blog, I hope you will go find your own Paradise. Tell them you love them.