The Help

Once we were home, Bob, being male, immediately started trying to figure out how he could get back to work.  He owns a vending company, which means he fills drink and snack machines, and his routes take him to Raleigh, Durham, Research Triangle Park, and surrounding areas.  If the machines are allowed to run empty, he loses money and increases the risk of vandals breaking into the machines.  An empty machine signals lots of money in the box.
Anyway, in order to prevent Bob from doing too much, Ellen, his oldest daughter, organized friends and family to help Bob on his routes.  Since he couldn't lift any more than 8 pounds at a time for 2 weeks, that meant lifing 12-packs of soda wasn't allowed.  Bob came home on Wednesday, rested on Thursday, and was out for the first time on Friday with Billy, his son-in-law, who took the afternoon off so he could help.  Kristen, Bob's daughter, also came over, and the help they gave us was amazing.  Billy went with Bob and did all the heavy work of the vending, and Kristen stayed at the house.  She vacuumed every room, and that was a big job since the house hadn't been vacuumed for 3 weeks.  The weekend before Bob's attack, I had gone to the Joyce Meyer convention in Winston-Salem from Thursday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, and when I got home, I worked in the yard with Bob.  After church on Sunday, we worked in the yard again, including spreading the last of the 20 cubic yards of mulch which we had worked to spread the prior weekend.  I had every intention of vacuuming the house Monday night, but spent it instead at the hospital with Bob, so by the time Kristen cleaned it, it was a mess -- leaf litter, pine needles, dirt, yard debris -- all of which came in on shoes, and CAT FUR!  I didn't know Kristen was going to clean, and when I came home and found my house vacuumed, I was so surprised and very grateful.  And after Kristen finished cleaning the house, she went outside and began pulling weeds in a bed that runs alongside the garage.  The weeds had gotten out of control last year due to my back surgery and recovery, and some of the landscape beds had been overrun with grass and weeds, ruling with an iron fist.  But Kristen dethroned many of them!
Later, when Billy and Bob came home, I fixed dinner, including T-bone steaks on the grill, and we had a wonderful time with just Billy and Kristen -- no kids, no other people, just one-on-one.  We are so thankful for the energy and time they gave to us and all the work they did.
On Saturday, my son Nathan came over and helped.  Bob doesn't usually work on Saturdays, but he wanted to get caught up on some of the work that he'd missed.  Monday's help was David, a friend from church; Tuesday's help was Jerry, a friend who sings in the chorus with Bob; Wednesday, Ellen, Bob's oldest daughter, took the day off to help; Jerry came back on Thursday; and Friday, Clay, a friend from church.  Thanks to everyone for giving so selflessly of your time and energy to Bob! 
Today is Saturday, and Bob has gone to Cary to sing in The General Assembly Chorus's Pretty in Pink Concert.  The GA is an all-male a capella babershop group, and the concert is to raise money for Pretty in Pink, a non-profit group here in North Carolina that provides free medical care for women with breast cancer who don't have insurance or when insurance doesn't cover the cost of treatment.  There's an afternoon perfomance at 2:00 and another this evening at 7:30.  Rehearsal is this morning, and Bob will be sitting down as much as possible to conserve his strength for the performances.  It will be a long day for him, but he really wants to be part of the concert.
The only residual physical ailment from his stent procedure is the bruise that resulted from the catheter placement in the vein in Bob's groin.  He has a massive bruise which has migrated down his leg, almost to his knee, and across his abdomen, and it causes him a lot of pain, especially when he gets up after sitting or resting.  Eventually, the bruise will dissipate, and so will the discomfort.
So we're now getting back to "normal," but we have a fresh, profound understanding that life is fragile and we have only the moment we're in.  None of us know when we will breathe our last breath, when our hearts will beat their last beat, so we need to be ready to move on to our eternal home.  Hug your loved ones, speak kind, encouraging words, help unselfishly, give abundantly, and serve and love God.  Winning the lottery doesn't matter; having nice cars in a huge house doesn't matter; taking expensive vacations doesn't matter; none of these things have value in God's sight.  Live each day as if it were your last, living for God while preparing to meet Him, for everyone will stand before Him one day.