Happy Monday. I hope your team won last night.
I’m sitting on the bed upstairs with my laptop, working on emails and preparing for a meeting this evening, sort of furiously trying to manage my work before the toddler wakes up. She’s wiped out from the party she hosted last night and there’s a big ‘ol mess of leftovers, dishes, toys and tiaras (yes, we pull those out for the Super Bowl around here) that I’m avoiding. Our daycare situation has changed, and this is our first week without it. I’m panicking a bit, cause momma’s still got work to do, but my mother-in-law is coming to the rescue to ease us into it and I’m grateful.
Making cookie bars for Super Bowl
My mom was able to come home late Saturday night and spend the evening with us. She’ll be here for the rest of the week while my uncle stays with my dad in Minneapolis. It was strange to watch the Super Bowl last night and know that he was there, in his bed in a rehab facility, wishing he was home. When they zoomed out on the lights of the city during the halftime show I couldn’t help but think of him as one of those millions of lights so far away and I missed him.
When I wrote this column last week we planned on having him home by now, but a minor set back has him there waiting for a bit more healing without a definite timeline. The difference though, is we know he’s coming home now. The difference is, he’s no longer dying. He’s on his way to a recovery, a slow one, but a recovery nonetheless. And we’re grateful.
This mess of a life will be easier to tackle with him back beside us all.
Searching for calm in this mess we call life
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After three long, agonizing months in and out of ICU in a Minneapolis hospital battling pancreatitis and fighting for his life, my dad is set to come home to the ranch in a few weeks.
Friends are calling wondering what they can do, making plans to clear the driveway, buy groceries and welcome him back, and we are so very grateful.
And while I want to say that we’re all finally able to let that breath out that we’ve been holding in all this time, I’m not so sure that it’s entirely true yet. When a loved one has gone through such a traumatic, life-threatening experience, I’m not sure when you begin to trust that that it’s truly over. He’s coming home, but he’s got a long road to recovery, one that will be done out here, so far from the team of experts that saved his life.
It’s times like these the isolation of rural living sinks in. And it can scare you if you let it. The fact that my dad made it all those miles between the cold buttes and coulees of the ranch to a place with skyscrapers and sidewalks that could save him is truly a miracle that wouldn’t be possible in a different time. And now, somehow, it feels like years since we had him here, home and healthy with us. These months have passed slowly.
Last weekend my great uncle stopped by the house to visit. He’s one of the three remaining children of 12 born just down the road from the ranch.
“Come on in, it’s a mess, but that’s life,” I said as I hugged him with my free arm, my sleeping baby in the other, my toddler behind us with the door open sitting naked on the potty.
I replayed those words in my head for days since I blurted them. It’s a phrase I’d never uttered before and one that may have resonated with him had I not said it with such haste in an attempt to explain away my housekeeping skills.
Because he just recently lost his wife after a long health battle and he came home for a visit with his brothers.
“It’s a mess, but that’s life…”
He stood in my kitchen, surrounded by the remnants of breakfast and Edie’s art project and our small talk about weather turned to a story about his immigrant father and how he rode his bike 80-some miles across the prairie to borrow a wagon to pick up his bride.
“Can you imagine what my mother was thinking? I don’t know if she knew what she was getting into…”
I couldn’t help but think then, that what she got herself into brought us to that moment in my kitchen that day, comforting one another, worrying about Dad’s homecoming and smiling as that man, who has known much more mess in this life than stray socks and spilled orange juice, called my daughters beautiful.
These are the reasons we stay here, standing brave, holding our breath, in this mess of a life.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch... 
Glad to hear your dad is getting better, my Wife had the same thing years ago, the recover took awhile, but he will overcome it. Praise the lord. Love all you pictures.
That is good news about your father coming home soon! You are all still in my thoughts and prayers.
My deepest sympathy to your great uncle on the loss of his wife. May he find peace.
Love your column, as usual. Your mom and dad are real troupers and trouping is not easy. Our family is dealing with our daughter-in-law being treated for leukemia; lots of transfusions, chemo drugs and now checking out relatives for a bone marrow transplant. the 13 year old daughter spending nights with friends when parents aren’t able to be home, being nothing but stoic. Life is nothing if not messy.
Thanks for the update on your Dad. Will keep him in my prayers. When people visit and house is a mess, I just say “going for the lived in look”.
Thank you for sharing this touching time in your life. I am very glad your dad is recovering and will be on the way back to his family, soon.