THE STORY

   We had been looking forward to the date for weeks. A night out....without the kids. We very rarely went out without them.  Chris' dad, Don lives in Connecticut, retired in January and bored out of his mind decided to spend the summer with us. That way if I had an appointment for window treatments or if Chris had solar appointments, we could do so without putting the kids in day care for the summer. It was also to help us save some money. The annual event for our neighborhood party was finally here. The kids were settled with Grandpa and we were on our way. 

   How could we guess that we would not return home the same. You never expect things like this to happen to you.....they happen to other people. The evening ended at a neighbors house with a pool. Chris and his business partner Dan had a great week, things were looking good for their start up company. Chris was smiling more than I had seen him smile in about a year. He was joking with the home owner about jumping in the pool, but I didn't think he was really going to go in. Next thing I know he is handing me his phone, then I hear splash. 

   The home owner got Chris out of the pool another friend gave him mouth to mouth. I threw off my flip flops and ran two blocks to a neighbor that was a fire fighter. It was the only thing I could think of to do.........get help. As hard as I knocked, he did not answer. By the time I ran back to Chris, the paramedics were there. Everyone yelled it's okay, he breathing, he's cracking jokes. I thought, okay, good, everything is okay. Then Chris said he couldn't feel his legs and the paramedics said we need to take him in. I got in the ambulance and heard Chris tell one of the guys "I need to live, I have two kids". That was when my heart sank. They said they were taking him to Western Medical in Santa Ana as it was the closest trauma center. From Huntington Beach it's about 12 miles. Let me tell you, that was the longest 12 miles of my life. I kept thinking, if things were really bad they would rush, put the lights on........something other than the snail's pace we were doing all the way to Santa Ana. Could they go any slower? I now know and appreciate that is was to prevent his spine from any other damage.

   We get there, Dr.'s are waiting for him, sorry to say but my first thought was "oh, just like on Grey's Anatomy". They rush Chris in and I all of a sudden I am alone at midnight in the parking lot of a hospital in Santa Ana..........how did my life change in the course of the last hour? I figure out where to go with help of a security guard who looked as big as Shaq. I walk in, sit down and they hand me Chris' watch and wedding ring through the plexi glass window. Huh, I gave him that ring ten years, never thought it would be given back to me, especially not like this. It felt so cold and lonely. 

   Luckily with in the hour my father in law or FIL as my girlfriends and I have been calling him all summer, showed up within the hour with our friend Javier, the one who gave Chris mouth to mouth, back at the party. After an hour a Dr comes out, says they need to do surgery right away, it will be a very long surgery, about 5 hours. They tell us he will probably not walk again, ever. My head is spinning. How your life can really change in a heart beat.