Happy Birthday Papa!!!
I sent a request for letters and pictures to put in my dad's room and My amazing family pulled though! (I could not have asked for a better family : )) I received over 70 pictures, beautiful art work, and wonderful words of endearment.
Last night my wonderful friend, Kelly and I arranged the pictures on a tri-fold poster board. This way Dad can take the pictures of his family anywhere he goes. Anna helped us place the stickers and she did a great job! (Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, it is really hard to take pictures on a phone, with gloves on! I will have GG (Grandma Graff) take some better pictures tomorrow when she visits.)
This morning, that same amazing friend watch Anna and Piper while I drove to USC to visit Dad and share the little pieces of joy that were so lovingly sent.
When I walked into the ICU I was met by a very friendly face. I am awful with names, so I don't remember his name even though he repeated it twice : (. However I do know that he is a resident Dr. at USC. He welcomed me and ask who I was visiting. I told him that it was my dad's birthday and his face light up with excitement! "We love birthdays here!" he said and then he proceeded to run around the unit gathering nurses. Once we had about 10 of us, he opened the BIG doors to Dad's room and everyone sang Happy Birthday to my dad, while two of the nurses held up the board that I had made. Dad Clapped for us and was thrilled with the attention.
I gowned up and got to visit with my Dad. I showed him each of the pictures on the board, read his notes to him, and showed him the pictures that his grandchildren had made him. He felt so blessed that we remembered him. He really misses his family and is working on getting better. He told me of his miraculous recovery and that his knows that he has a great and important work to do.
His message to the family is that he loves all of us and can't wait to be in our homes with our children! He really misses Mom and when I told him that she will be visiting with him tomorrow, his eyes swelled up with tears and he said that he feels better knowing that she is coming! So sweet!
Thank you to my family for all the work that you did to help me pull off this Surprise! It definitely spread joy and sunshine to those who witnessed the out pour of love from our family!
