"I don't even know how to begin to relate the happenings of this Mother's Day weekend. It was the highest of times and the lowest of times. On Saturday morning we awoke to a beautiful day and were so thankful because our son, Paul, was in charge of a 5K Charity Race as a memorial for Dylan Meier, a young man who died at the age of 26 in a tragic hiking accident last year. This was a young man that Paul was friends with and had played ball within Jr. High and High School. So the race was special to him on many levels. Working for the Kansas City Sports Association organizing these types of events are in his job description so there was a professional side to the race. And because of his friendship with Dylan there was a personal side also. For days he had been concerned about the weather with the possibility of thunderstorms being forecast. So there was elation all the way around when we awoke to such a beautiful day. When we reached the football stadium for the start of the race the sight of almost 650 participants standing amidst tents, balloons, banners, and baby strollers was awe inspiring. The event felt more like a reunion than an athletic happening.
Our family had a number of entrants: Nick (a nephew, 26); Meagan (daughter-in-law, 25); Caleb (nephew, 18); Jonah (nephew, 14); and Sydney (niece, 13). Paul was everywhere at once and things were running like clockwork. The runners were quite a sight leaving the stadium and then the walkers (almost 200) began to walk the track for the mile course. My sister, Lisa, sister-in-law, Julie, Paul's Mother-in-law, Leatha, Paul's little girl, Quincy (in stroller) and I began a leisurely fun walk around the course. As we were finishing up the first of the runners was reentering the stadium going for the finish line. The four of us women went and stood close to the entry of the stadium so that we could get pictures as our family members came running in. As we stood there my brother, Mark, (a physician from North Carolina visiting for Mother's Day) came and stood beside us. He had been out playing golf and was late getting to the run. With just a few runners having come through on the way to the finish line we see Caleb running in. All of a sudden we hear him shouting for a medic and yelling that Nick (our 26 yr. old nephew) was down. My brother took off running with all of us steps behind. Nick had collapsed just yards from the entrance to the stadium. Nick is 6 ft. 1in. and weighs 185 lbs and played football at PSU for four years. He was in awesome shape so we were all thinking he must have tripped or fainted. While the temperatures were not exceedingly warm, the sun was out and the humidity was high. So you can imagine my shock as I came around the gate and found my brother doing CPR. Nick's heart had stopped. How do I begin to relate the horror of seeing Mark doing chest compressions and yelling at Nick to "stay with us". Mark continued doing CPR until the ambulance showed up and they used the defibrillator. As they loaded him in the ambulance they still had no heartbeat and we were going on 12 min. As our entire family raced to the hospital we prayed that God would give us a miracle and bring Nick back to us. Nick's parents, (my brother Joe and his wife, Janice) were in Manhattan at a baseball game with their son, Daniel. Making the call to them was heart wrenching. When my brother, Mark, joined us in the waiting room and we saw his tear stained face our hearts sank. But not too many minutes later the emergency room doctor came back and said that Nick's heart had miraculously restarted in the ambulance and that he was awake, alert, and talking. I can't begin to tell you what that felt like. Even the doctors were throwing around the words, miracle and miraculous. Nick doesn't remember a lot of what happened that day but continued to improve and was released from the hospital yesterday. He has an appointment with 2 heart specialists in Wichita today to try to find out why a healthy 26 year old has his heart stop beating. All I can tell you is that our prayers were answered. I have no doubt that it was the prayers of everybody who was at the race and the 35 family members who were in the emergency room.
For Paul all of this was particularly hard. He was responsible for the event, and Nick, besides being his cousin, is also one of his best friends. It was also particularly hard for the Meier family since Nick was also a friend of Dylan’s and Dylan's parents are friends with Janice and Joe. The horror that Janice and Joe might also lose a son was devastating to the Meier family. God heard all our prayers and we are so thankful. We are so aware of how wondrously God works. The fact that Mark was in town on this particular day; that he decided to come to the race even though he was late; that Nick collapsed just feet from where there was a medical person and not along the route; and that there were so many people that offered up their prayers on site is truly God's gift to us. Now our goal is just to get the sight of Nick being worked on out of our heads. I ask all of you to say a prayer for Nick and his family that the doctors are able find the problem and that it is easily corrected. If this experience does nothing else it reminds us to live each day as if it were our last and to remember to say I love you to the people in our life that we care about. So as I send this out to all of you I want to say, I love you!"
Nick is doing fine now. He has been diagnosed with a rare syndrome called Brugada. Basically, it is an "instant death" syndrome that causes the heart to stop. It is not brought on by exercise, and the heart is in perfect health. He had a pacemaker and defibrillator put in his heart last week. It will take 30 days for everything to be 100%, but if his heart should ever randomly stop, it will restart itself. We are so lucky and thank God everyday for bringing Nick back to us.
It was after this weekend that I realized that my weight is not that big of a deal. God, prayer, family, and friends are what are important. I should be grateful for everything that I have and live life to the fullest. If along the way, I lose weight...so be it. But I need to remind myself that my weight doesn't define me. My faith in God and love of my family defines me.
When I was born, I almost died three separate times but survived with minor medical issues, my 10-year-old nephew was in serious condition last year after being hit in the head with a golf ball but is completely healthy today, and now my 26-year-old cousin has recovered in perfect health after his heart stopped for no reason...after all of those instances how can I not help but believe that life is a gift from God. Life is what we make of it. So, while there will be times when I might not be happy with how I look or how much I weigh...I need to remember that I have friends to help me along the way. No matter how bad I feel, I need to remember that God is walking beside me. If I trust in Him, have faith in myself, and remain positive...I can do anything!
"Miracles, in the sense of phenomena we cannot explain, surround us on every hand: life itself is the miracle of miracles." ~George Bernard Shaw
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