Everyone experiences a night that they will never forget whether it is happy, scary, exciting, or sad. I will never forget the night that was filled with suspense, fear, anxiety, and relief; the night my dad had his ruptured brain aneurism.

The night of November 18, 2013 started off just as any other. I arrived home from basketball practice at 5:30 p.m. to find my mom cooking dinner and my dad relaxing on the couch after a long day at work. I plopped down on the couch next to my dad after our routine of talking about how basketball practice went; as far as I knew everything seemed normal. After a few minutes passed, my mom called from the kitchen, “Dinner is ready!” The smell of buttery dinner rolls suddenly engulfed my senses. I quickly dashed to the kitchen because I worked so hard during practice; I was starving. My dad slowly followed behind me.

We were all perched at the dinner table with our food in front of us just waiting to dig in after we said our meal prayer. I gobbled down my entire meal in seconds, barely taking time to breathe in between bites. I did notice that my mom was taking her time eating, but to my surprise, my dad had not even touched his food. I took a slight break from eating to ask, “Dad, what is the matter?” He replied, “I just have a really bad headache, but I will be fine. Don’t worry about me.” Not very convinced, I resumed eating. As I continued my dad excused himself from the dinner table because of the excruciating pain he was in. I whispered to my mom that we should make him go to the hospital; she agreed. My mom said to my dad that he should go to the hospital, but he rejected a few times. Finally, he could protest no longer because of the great amount of pain.

They left for the hospital at 7:00 p.m. I was a little nervous, but I knew it would not be anything too serious. I sat watching television in my living room when I received a phone call from my mom around 8:00 p.m. She seemed very calm and said my dad just had extremely high blood pressure. The nurses were managing it, would run a few more tests to make sure everything else was fine, then he would be released. They would be home in two hours.

It was 9:30 p.m. as I heard the garage door squeal open. Assuming it was my parents arriving home early, I continued watching television. To my surprise, my grandma quickly turned the knob to the kitchen door, immediately placed one foot in front of the other until my gaze met her.As soon as I saw her, my heart immediately sank. She came running to the couch where I was sitting, trying to explain why she was here, but she was lost for words. I was so frustrated; I felt warm tears come streaming down my face. At that moment, I received another phone call from my mom giving me the news saying, “I want you to stay calm. They are life flighting your dad to Iowa City in ten minutes. They found that he has an aneurism in his brain, and it has ruptured. I know this is scary but Dad is strong, and you need to pray that everything will be okay.” My heart dropped to my stomach; my lips were moving, but no sound could come out. At that time, tears welled up in my eyes and fell like raindrops crashing to the ground. I asked my grandma if I could call a friend, Jimmy.

Jimmy had planned on coming over later that night to pick up his football jersey. I called, in tears, asking if he would come over early. Within minutes, Jimmy was at my door. I told him exactly what was going on, and all he could do is hug me, which was the only thing I needed at that point. Jimmy and I conversed about my dad’s condition for about ten minutes as he comforted me. Then, after I had calmed down a bit, my grandma suggested we go get my mom’s car from the hospital. She drove Jimmy and I out to the Emergency Room where my mom’s car was parked. I immediately charged to the driver’s seat, but as I reached for the handle Jimmy grabbed it saying it would be best if he drove since I was not in the right state of mind to be driving. When we arrived back home, our neighbors and good friends, Tim and Tammy, were in the driveway with their car.

Tim explained that my mom had called to ask if they would drive to Iowa City to take my siblings and me to be with my parents. I eagerly hopped in the car so we could take off right away. Tim and Tammy tried to keep my mind off of everything by keeping conversations going, but that did not seem to help. We reached Ames where we picked up my sister, Kaitlyn. Being with Kaitlyn was much more comforting, so I started to relax a bit. Not long after, we picked up my brother, Andrew, in Altoonath. Finally, we were off to Iowa City. My eyelids were growing very heavy with all of the stress, my body was exhausted. I entered into a short state of relaxation and fell asleep for forty minutes. When I awoke at 1:45 a.m. we were in Iowa City.

My neighbors and family rushed into the Emergency Room of the University of Iowa Hospital and demanded for immediate directions to Elevator I, which would lead to the Neurosurgical Care Unit. After walking for what seemed like miles and miles, we finally reached Elevator I. We took the elevator to the sixth floor and saw my mom as soon as the doors opened. She greeted my siblings and I with open arms as we all fled to her. My mom quietly directed us to the silent family waiting room where she had been patiently waiting for any new news on my dad’s condition for the past two hours. My dad was already in a four hour surgery to find and try to repair the aneurism. Waiting to know if my dad would live was pure agony. Finally, at 5:00 a.m. the next morning, the doctor came in and said the surgery went fine and I was able to see my dad again. The moment I saw my dad laying there in the hospital bed, alive, with cords and tubes connected everywhere was pure joy. I was a wonderful sight to see him!

It has been three months since the night of my dad’s aneurism. Thankfully, he is alive and well, doing all the things he loves. Sometimes it takes an experience so dreadful to realize what we have. A night like that is truly unforgettable.