It’s Saturday evening January 18, 2014. India and I leave in a few hours for her
surgery in Boston, Massachusetts. We
will be gone for up to a month and to say I’m worried would be the
understatement of the century.
The journey to get her to Harvard Boston Children’s Hospital
has been absolutely brutal in so many ways; even as recent as tonight.
But ironically enough, India and I will be getting up at
4:00 am tomorrow morning as I used to in the Navy. And of all people, an old Navy friend from
the Aircraft Carrier USS Ranger CV-61 that we served on will be taking me and
India to the airport at 4:45 am.
I’ve not seen him in God knows how long and he’s going to
meet me at my house before the sun rises to give us a lift to the airport.
For me, here is what is really neat about this story.
One of the last times I talked to my Navy buddy was in the
Persian Gulf in 1989. We were in a “Machine Room” where he had duty; horrible
duty. This room was an awful place to have to spend hours upon hours, staring
at engines humming, no windows, wearing hearing protection from the deafening
sound and enduring 100+ degree heat.
We’d sit in this steel room and just talk (shout) about what
we were going to do when we got out of the Navy. We had fantastic ideas and our homes were
going to be surrounded by white picket fences.
The day my pal left the ship, he gave me a book that I still
have to this day and display proudly in my dining room.
My friend is now the Principal of “La Cueva High School” in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s one of the top rated, if not the #1 in the state
of New Mexico.
Thank you Todd.
P.S. Albuquerque High Bulldogs Rule!
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