Day 92: Funeral & Dad & Cake

Today I started my day off by going to the funeral of a friends step-dad. I wasn't really close to him, but the friend is the same friend I spoke of a few days ago that met me at the gym and wanted me to help her workout and give her tips on how I was losing weight. The funeral was really hard for my sister and I because we almost lost our step-dad last year. So while we were sitting there it just really hit home. My step-dad has been in my life since I was 11, and to me...he's Dad. He's the only father figure I've ever had and I love him with all of my heart! So coming that close to losing him was extremely difficult. He's not out of the woods yet, in fact, he'll probably never be the way he was before he got sick. But because he did get so sick and lost 100 pounds (down to 124 at his lowest and he's 6'2") in a six month span and he just kept getting worse and worse and weaker and weaker and it just came to a point to where my sister and I both were beginning to prepare ourselves for what seamed to be inevitable at that time. I remember thinking that he had given up, and mom told me one day that he was in so much pain that he would cry out to God to just take him home. It killed me! I felt utterly helpless and didn't even know what to say to him, but I wanted him to just be better!

So late last summer the VA finally got him a motorized scooter, because he is pretty much confined to a wheelchair except to make short transfers from the house to the car and such. The day he got the scooter...he got some of his independence back. And even though he's lost so much of his vision that he can't really see very well at all, he still rode that scooter all over the place. And that's when he started getting better. He started to get his will to live back, and he started gaining weight. My parents were making bi-weekly trips to St. Louis cause his blood count kept dropping to the point that he had to start getting blood transfusions every two to four weeks and now they've made it only monthly visits and this is the second or third month in a row that he hasn't had to get a transfusion! My parents actually had to go to St. Louis today so I guess that's why this was on my mind so much today. Oh and he's up to 176 pounds now and is starting to get a little bit of a belly back. :) I don't know if the doctor's would say that's good, but at least he's getting some meat back on his bones!

So yea, we went to that funeral and all of the past 18 months came flooding back to me. At this point we have so much hope towards my dad's recovery, but a funeral sure did get me thinking about stuff.

After the funeral I had to rush home and get a cake iced and decorated for a new friend of mine that I go to Zumba with and she's the sister-in-law to one of my girls in the studio. She's renewing her wedding vows tonight and needed a cake, so I told her I would love to make it:) now its 4:30 and I've got the cake all finished and chilling and setting up so I can drop it off when I head to The gym. :)

Speaking of which, I better wrap this up and get headed that way! Have a great evening my friends! And thanks for being there and lifting me up when I'm down!
<3 Honor