Oh, life and its curve balls. I am a firm believer in "everything happening for a reason," even if it's not what we want, nor expect, even if we have a really hard time understanding why or seeing the good in a negative situation. I also firmly believe that if we put positive energy and effort into any endeavor, the end result will be positive, even if it's not what we thought it would be.....
My dad had a heart attack at the end of March and needs quadruple bypass surgery. After saying and typing it repeatedly, it's starting to feel real. He's doing OK now, home with my mom, resting and recovering, but I'm flying home on April 30th instead of June 30th to help take care of my parents after the surgery. I wish I could say the decision had been easy and thoughtless, simply what a good daughter would do to help family in need, but I struggled with this curve ball.
The hardest question was when to come home. There were times in the first few days after his MI, when he was still in the hospital, that I had the urge to get a ticket home right away. Few things have been harder in my life, than being on a different continent and hearing my father's voice after he received the news of the necessity for bypass surgery. In my 11 months of travels, I have had some desperate moments to give and receive hugs via skype or phone, but this one beats them all. How to hug someone in a hospital bed in CO when I'm in a suburb of Paris at 1 am??? Even the quickest flight couldn't solve that dilemma.
Not being able to magically transport myself home in a snap, the question persisted of when to fly home. Over the next week, I debated endlessly on the best return date, entertained lots of morbid thoughts, mourned the early end to my travels and adventures, and found the prospect heart-breaking of potentially never seeing some of my French family again. Lots of discussions with my parents ended in the April 30th choice.
I'm so very very thankful for the support system that materialized to take care of my parents. Between wonderful neighbors, friends, family and colleagues, the offers to help were so numerous that they made me cry. It felt like something out of a movie, but no, it's reality; it's the goodness that people are capable of, and it's a reality that uplifts me.
With this amazing support network and my parents returning to a semi-autonomic lifestyle, I decided to use the last month to visit all my French family (48 in total!! Fabulous, but difficult to squeeze into 1 month). So that is what I'm doing now. Hyper-speed visits around France. Yesterday was 6 hours of train to go from Clermont-Ferrand to Sarrebourg, and the rushed visits continue. It never feels like enough time, but at the same time, I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to see everyone again. Today, I got to help my uncle in the vegetable garden and it was GREAT! It's like really low-key WWOOFing. =)
My last international trip was to Rome between March 28th to April 4th (a trip planned pre-MI, that I'm also very grateful I was able to take). Holy cow! I felt like a kid in a candy store. The amount of ancient ruins in that city is mind-boggling. Just randomly walking along streets in the city, I'd repeatedly discover remains dating back 2000 years. I find that kind of stuff fascinating!! I spent all 7 days in Rome and still feel like it was insufficient. I also brilliantly, and inadvertently (severe brain-zap to blame) scheduled my trip over Easter. Brilliant, indeed! Add in the whole "new pope" aspect, and I got to see quite the crowds at St Peter's Basilica. Otherwise, seeing the Sistine Chapel was amazing, and my favorite places were the Terme di Caracalla and Appia Antica. I'll attempt to do Rome justice with its own blog post.
When I purchased my ticket back to the States, I was shocked and disgusted with the fact that round-trips are cheaper than one-ways. In four days of searching, using various search engines and individual airline websites, I found no one-way ticket cheaper than round-trip. WHAT is that?? Craziness. SO, logically, I bought a round-trip ticket. At first I was going to get the return for a week later and simply not use the return, however, I had an idea before making the final purchase. If all goes well with the surgery and recovery and I can find a random job or two to earn some money, I might be able to go back and finish the travels I had planned, and take the opportunity to visit my family once more. The thought is a bit soothing and extraordinary, and I will just have to wait and see, but as it stands I have a plane ticket from Denver to Paris on September 3rd. Only time will tell if I'll be on that plane!
