Ray C Mast

Last year Mike's dad was diagnosed with Congestive heart failure. We made the long drive up to be with him. He got better and was on his way back to being himself. On March 21(one year later), we got a call from his mom that his dad had lots of water on his feet and legs and that she was going to take him to the hospital. Later on did I find out the his finger tips and lips were blue. They kept him over night to run more test and to evaluate him. That call was on Saturday March 21st. On Monday March 23rd they were going to shock his heart to get it to beat the way it needs to be. His dad wasn't coming out of it that well so they had to put him on a machine to help him breath. On Tuesday March 24th my parents came in. Mike got to call his dad's doctor and talk to him and get questions answered. When Mike got back from picking my parents up from Tampa airport he got a call saying his dad wasn't doing so good. So we looked up flights for him to go to see his dad.

The day I was leaving the hospital Mike flew out to see his dad. I was dealing with the baby blues. I was mad, hurt and upset. I was mad that he bought a ticket without talking to me first. Hurt that he didn't care how I felt or what I was going through. Upset that he didn't wait till we got home and settled in. I know and understand why he had to go.

Mike's dad had a valve that wasn't pumping the way it should. They decided to shock his heart. When they did that many other problems came about. They had to put him on a respirator. He seemed to do better. Mike came home on a Tuesday. They sent his dad home the next day. Mike would call and get updates. We thought all was good. His dad was on oxegen. It was to be at night only but ended up being all the time.

Saturday night from we got a call from Sharon saying that his dad was not doing so good and that she was on the way to the house and would call us once she got there to let us know what was going on. On Sunday April 6th his mom and sister Becky called saying that they were having a hard time getting his pulse and they wanted him to talk to his dad. That was the day his dad passed away. We sat and talked about our options. We fly Mike up or we all drive up as a family. We decided to drive up as a family. So once we found out when the funeral was we called his work and told them when we would be leaving. So Monday we packed up the car and headed to Ohio. We got in on Tuesday and got changed for the viewing. The funeral was on Wednesday. It was a cold day. It had snowed the day and night before. We headed to the church after some car problems.We had a sitter for Katie that was a friend of the family. We also had family that helped out with the boys. I ended up taking Michael the the baby room to get him to sleep. I missed half the service. There was some lovely music. We had a lovely service. We headed to the family grave site. When we got there we parked the car so that Mike could help move his dad from the hearse to the horse and buggy that would take him up the rest of the way due to the weather conditions. I got Christian out and bundled him up. I got in the car with Joe, Deborah and Becky. Mike grabbed Michael and they walked up the hill. Mike handed off Michael to his mom so he could go take care of his father's casket. Michael cried for his daddy the whole time. During the burial we had to hand the boys off to keep Michael quiet. Mike's uncle Andy ended up taking Michael to see the horse. It was cold and windy.


After the burial we picked Katie up and headed back to the church for a lunch with family. We loved spending time with family but not like this. Katie got to play with her cousins. We all headed back to his mom's house to spend time as a family.