Val's Call

As you may recall, it was just a few weeks ago I was in Florida with Mom and my sisters and Val was going to go the the doctor with Mom to try and get some resolution on Mom's headaches and memory loss.  At that appointment, the doctor said they needed to do some tests, etc. so we were just waiting for those results.

As Jerry and I were literally walking out of the door to take him to the airport to return to Germany, my sister Val called.  My family called me Mesa (like Lisa with an m) and often times Val shortened the nickname even further to just --Mes (like niece with an m).  And so her conversation started in a soft low voice, "Mes . . . ."

". . .we got the results of Mom's tests back.  She has a brain tumor."

I remember hearing those words but not really understanding what they meant.  Jerry was standing there next to his luggage just looking at me trying to figure out what was going on.  A big lump had formed in my throat.  It wasn't really what I was hearing that was upsetting to me but the tone of my sister's voice --like this was something serious.  I remember thinking I needed to sit down so I walked over to the couch.

"Mes?  You there?  I need to know what we need to do, you know --the Army.  Mom is going in for surgery tomorrow morning and ----Mes?  You there?"

I was sitting on the couch with tears streaming down my face unable to speak.    I swallowed what felt like a huge lump in my throat, trying to make words come out . . . "Yeah, I'm here."

"Okay well, the doctor doesn't wait to do the surgery and Mom asked that all of us be there before she goes in.  She wants to see all of us before they take her in because you know ---uh, it's just a risk and ----Mom wants to see us.  Can you come?  Like, will the Army let you?"

I had absolutely no words and absolutely no thoughts.  I was numb and I was blank.  I looked up at Jerry and said, "It's my Mom --she has a brain tumor and is having surgery in the morning . . and I need to get to Florida and . . "

I knew this stuff --I knew the procedures and I knew how to deal with Emergency Leave but somehow, all of that left my mind and I could not even function.  So as I sat on the couch Jerry would tell me what to tell my sister so I just robotically relayed Jerry's messages to my sister.  All the while in the back of my mind, both Jerry and I were well aware of the fact that we needed to leave for the airport and he could not miss that flight back to Germany.

Jerry said, "Tell your sister your Mom's doctor or the hospital needs to call the Red Cross and request Emergency Leave for an active duty solider.  Give them your name, rank, social security number and your unit.  Hospitals know what to do, tell your sister they deal with this stuff all of the time.  So just tell her that, they will know what to do."

So I told my sister what Jerry said, gave her the information and then Jerry and I headed out to the airport.  We had a two hour drive.

When I first hung up the phone I just looked at Jerry still in shock and confusion and I said, "I don't know what to do."  I'll never forget he said to me, "You go to your mother.  If my mother was going in for surgery wild horses couldn't keep me from her.  There's not an Army big or bad enough to keep me from doing so."

On the way to the airport Jerry was explaining the Red Cross procedure to me and telling me what I should do.  Like I said, I knew this stuff but somehow I didn't know this stuff.  Suddenly this became my reality and not just some text book set of instructions. 

Now I'm in a time crunch because I have a two hour drive to Kansas City to take Jerry to the airport then a two hour drive back to Ft. Riley and then I have to pack, get my leave orders and drive back to Kansas City and fly to Florida.  I also needed to get all of this done that night and be at Mom's bedside before she went into surgery the next morning.

I was almost glad to be pre-occupied with the 4 hours of drive time because by the time I got back to Ft. Riley all the Red Cross calls and preparations will have been made.  I thought all I literally was going to do was run into the apartment, pack an overnight bag, stop at my unit to pick up my leave orders, drive back to the airport.

But it didn't happen exactly that way.