Normal

2/13/2001
6:30am

5099223773
Fowler J

That's what showed up on my caller ID. I thought it was odd for mom to call so early, but she knew I'd be up and on my way to work.

Only, when I answered, it wasn't mom. It was Charles.

"Tisha, there's somenthing wrong with your mom."

Those few seconds before I answered the phone were the last normal moments of my life.

Since I was leaving for work, I called Mandy to deal with it. I didn't really think it was any big deal. I just figured Charles was overreacting a bit and didn't want to call Mandy since she'd figured out all the stuff going on between him and mom. Even after she went to the hospital and they thought she had an aneyrism, I still didn't realize what I was in for. A patient of mine that morning told me I should go to the hospital, but I said "Oh, my sister's a PA and she didn't act like it was a huge deal, so I'm sure it'll be fine."

At lunch that day, Mandy called and said that a chaplain had told her to call anyone she thought should be there. That's when I realized this was a whole lot more serious than I had realized. I remember telling Ted to cancel my afternoon. He thought I was joking because I didn't want to go back to work after lunch, I guess, because he chuckled. I stared him down and barked, "I'm serious. Cancel my afternoon. I'm going to the hospital." I'm quite sure I didn't even tell the doctors I was leaving. I just left.

I remember speeding to the hospital, the entire time praying "God, please just let her live till I get there. Don't let her die before I'm there." And she didn't. He answered that prayer. I remember several other times I prayed things like 'keep her safe', 'let her not be in pain', 'let her be peaceful', and those all were answered too. I wonder if God purposely kept me from praying simply 'don't let her die' so I wouldn't focus on the prayers that weren't answered, but on the ones that were.

And today, 10 years later, I've had to find a new normal in life. After that phone call, my old 'normal' ceased to exist.