Flashback Friday #30

Dad's Heart Attack

When I was in the upper levels of elementary school, I came home from school one day, and Mom was home. Mom home? She doesn't come home for another two hours. Why is she home?

Then she told me. Dad had a heart attack at work. He was in the hospital, but she didn't know how bad things were. We were heading to the hospital as soon as everyone got into the car.

Now the are some things you need to know about Dad. He was a former farm boy who now worked at a lumberyard. He was strong as an ox, and so were his cigars. Yes, Dad was a big time cigar smoker. He loved Swisher Sweets. He would save the butts in a cigar box (where else?) and smoke them in a pipe if he didn't have money to go get another box. Smoking was his main vice.

Fortunately, his heart attack was mild, and no serious damage was done to his heart. His doctor told him that he would need to quit smoking unless he wanted to have another heart attack. He told the doctor that there was no way that he would give up smoking, and that the first thing he planned on doing when he got home was lighting up a stogie.

True to his word, when Dad got home, he got out his cigar box (which he had just purchased before he went into the hospital) and lit up a cigar. He inhaled the rich deep smoke of that cigar, then promptly passed out.

When he came to a few minutes later, he picked up that almost new box of cigars and went outside. On the way to the back yard, he stopped by the shed and grabbed a shovel. He them commenced to dig a hole and bury those cigars. He never had another one after that.

That was 35 years ago. Since then he has had a couple more heart attacks, a stroke and open heart surgery. He's still kicking & as ornery as ever.

This is him last month with my new grand daughter. Most of you have seen this picture before, but since it's my blog, I can rerun pictures if I want. BTW, that's not an Ipod on his shirt, it's his $12 "TV Ears" hearing aids.