Well like I said in my last blog, I'm going to talk about March 4th, 2007. The day that will ever change my life...the day my father stopped breathing! That evening I put the kids to bed and was laying down relaxing when the phone rang. I could hardly make out what the person was saying...but I did hear "your father stopped breathing and the ambulance just took him away!". Well let me tell you, that was the first time my hearts ever stop! It was like slow motion hit me and my mind was racing to get answers. I called Heather and told her to get home asap. I think by the time I got off the phone with her she was in the driveway. I raced out the door and drove 80 km to my parents hospital. I was told that my father was being taken to another hospital one and a half hours away. My mother and I drove together well my aunt and uncle drove my parents good friends. At the hospital we were told that they didn't expect my father to make it. All that night my father fought for this life! We all prayed. My father made it though the night but it wasn't over....so the prayers continued. Finally after two days on life support he was taken off it and able to talk. I was standing at this bed side holding his hand with my mother talking to the doctors when I watched his eyes roll back in his head and then I saw the monitor draw a flat line across it. Over two minutes passed and the ICU staff at the Kingston General Hospital were able to bring him back....thank you! As the days turned into weeks he got stronger and stronger. Then one night as we were staying in a room at the hospital we got a call asking for us to return to his room. Dad was having problems breathing. All night we talked to him reminding him to take a breath. By this time after weeks of limited sleep and trying to be the pillar of strength for my mother it came to me that dad was far from healthy. It was like being hit in the face with the bat. All of a sudden it came to me that my best friend was laying in a hospital bed fighting for his life. I continued to pray that night and I swore that if god spared my fathers life that I would do everything in my life to not only better myself as an individual but I'd do the same for other. By this I mean, I've always helped other and have always been an active community member but this was going to be different. It was on that night that I made a life choose...I was going to use my god given gift of photography to change peoples lives. I already had a photography company, so I decided to take a percent of all money earned to a charity. I think I'm going to give it to two different ones....cancer and heart. Two deadly killers. I've also come up with the idea to get help from some of the best photographers in the world and sell pictures on line with all the profit going directly to these charities. I know it's not much and it shore isn't a gimmick to generate more sales but at least I'm making the effort to help. All in all I'm just truly blessed to have my father back. It's not often that a person can say that they have met their hero, let alone have them as a best friend! After reading this blog I just hope that each and everyone of you stops to appreciate life for it's true beauty because it can be taken away in a blink of an eye....trust me I've seen it first hand!
All the best and god bless;
Mike
