I hope that anyone who knows me, knows that my God is important to me. My relationship with my Lord and Savior, and my Spiritual belief, my Faith life are all important to me and always have been. But it didn't flower until I came out and started being who I really am and at the same time came to see my God as my Holy, Loving Poppa.
This last weekend was terrifying to me. I don't have any idea where my faith went -- I certainly wasn't thinking about it much at all. But in looking back, Poppa's hand was Everywhere!
First, I was with friends and not on the road, driving. or by myself without anyone to lean on.
Second, the two friends I was with have extensive lay medical knowledge and knew exactly what to do. They knew what and how to test me for the stroke.
Third, the house I was visiting is TWO BLOCKS from the EMTs.
In the aid car and at the ER, I was accompanied by one of my friends who gave clear and concise answers to questions about the event.
When I was assigned a room, it was the same room as my friend who had been in for an emergency appendectomy the night before.
The hospital I was admitted to is brand new, state-of-the-art and able to run all of the tests I needed to diagnose my stroke.
My Second Daughter dropped all her plans for the day and came straight to see me.
My ex [I hate calling her that!] came to visit right away.
My First Daughter, who I have not seen in a year and a half and only rarely communicated with, came, scared for me, scared of me, but she came, and she hugged me for along time. For me that was Huge!
My brother Tim and his family came to support me.
My brother Bill and his wife came ti the hospital to see me. Bill has not talked to me at all since the day I came out. He followed up the next day with a txt asking how I was and saying I looked good.
My friends kept me company and reassured me til very late. All of us were exhausted, but no one more so than my friend who had just had an appendectomy. They all went an extra mile!
My Second Daughter stayed with me all night, she wouldn't let me be alone with my thoughts and fears!
When I was discharged, I went to my friend's home again and they convinced me to stay the night so there would be someone there if something happened to me.
The many things that happened that were coincidences were things that I take for me to be Poppa's Hand. But so much more than that was the great outpouring of support, and concern, and love. For Love is from Poppa, for Poppa IS Love.
- Shannon Tucker
"It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are."
e. e. cummings