My 81-year-old mother suffered a massive heart attack at age 61, but recovered well enough that she later went back to junior college and graduated with a degree in dance at 72. Nevertheless, she is, now and forever, a “heart patient,” which means that when she awoke Thursday night with chest pains, my father immediately drove her to the hospital where she was admitted and spent the next day and a half. Thankfully, it was a false alarm; Mom is now back home and doing fine.

My husband, the kids, and I drove down from San Francisco on Saturday; my sisters and brother had already assembled at my parents’ place. Last night we all had dinner. My mother sat at her usual spot at one end of the table; my father sat at the other. In two weeks, my parents will celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary, and last night as I watched them interact I thought about the fact that they’ve sat across from each other at the table for 57 years. That’s a long time. I cannot imagine either one of them living without the other. My mother has told me she enjoys no one’s company as much as she enjoys my father’s. When Dad called to tell me about Mom’s recent episode, his voice broke as he said, “She’s the only girlfriend I’ve ever had.”

As health scares do, the event made everything else in our lives recede and seem less important. We always hold our loved ones close. Today we hold them a little closer.

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Tags: family, health scare

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