By Pedro Velazquez
When I was 11 years old I was confronted with the possibility of death, this period of my life I would call the most influential and changing time I’ve been apart of.
It was all so surreal to me, not long ago was I hanging out with my dad and now I was giving him a visit in the ICU room. This was my first time visiting him since he got sick with pneumonia, I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was anxious because I had didn’t know what to expect.
When I walked into the hospital I was greeted by a cold rush of air, his room was on the last floor so we had to take an elevator and that was probably one of the longest elevator rides I’ve endured. It felt like an hour passed, but after I got out I was rushed with anxiety, I didn’t know what condition he was in and how he had been doing, like I said this was the first time I was seeing him.
The time had come, I had to first check at the visitors area though, but I could see his room in the corner of my eye. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was that there was a nurse attending to him. She added an IV line to the vast amount of medicines he already had and to she had also been jotting notes then she left the room to us.
My father didn’t look to be in the greatest condition, he was hooked up to a machine that was breathing for him since his doctor decided it would be best to put him in a induced coma. My mom and brother were tearing up a little, but I was just there taking in the entire situation, after playing out this exact scene in my mind I didn’t know how to feel.
My dad was diagnosed with pneumonia which is an infection to the lungs. One of the main causes for pneumonia comes from smoking cigarettes which at the time was something he did a lot. It usually takes up to three weeks to recover, but this was different I didn’t think he was getting out anytime soon.
Looking back on this situation now I’m not surprised that I reacted the way I did, I tend to tuck away my emotions and this was the first time I did this.
This really affected me at the time, I had to think about what would happen if my dad were to pass away, I was only 11. Socially I started distancing myself from others and not paying attention in class because those things came second to my personal problems.
I know that I am not the only one who experienced this, according to LiveStrong, children who have one parent for an extended amount of time begin to experience loneliness, sadness, and depression.
As for now this really changed my outlook on life as a more mature version of my younger self. I’ve learned that life is unpredictable and can shake up your life in a split second.. I have learned to cherish every moment because in a second
I wasn’t the only person affected my dad’s absence, my mom was hit the hardest if I were to pick. I interviewed her recently about what she went through, I asked her what was the most difficult thing about not having my dad around, she said “I had to work even harder because I still had to take care of you and your siblings and to go along with that I had to go the hospital every day to check up on him.”
I followed that up by asking her what she learned during this time in our lives, ‘I never knew how hard it is to raise 3 kids all by yourself, you need as much help as you can get. I had to go to work everyday, make sure you went to school, then when I came home I still had to take care of my children.
“I never thought about what would happen if he died, I wanted to keep a positive outlook because if I were down I knew it would rub off on you guys and that was the last thing I wanted.”
Now that I am older and look back even though it was a terrible situation I’m kinda glad it happened because I learned so many valuable things during this time in my life. I learned that you have to live life to the fullest because at any moment your life can change completely.
It was all so surreal to me, not long ago was I hanging out with my dad and now I was giving him a visit in the ICU room. This was my first time visiting him since he got sick with pneumonia, I remember that day like it was yesterday, I was anxious because I had didn’t know what to expect.
When I walked into the hospital I was greeted by a cold rush of air, his room was on the last floor so we had to take an elevator and that was probably one of the longest elevator rides I’ve endured. It felt like an hour passed, but after I got out I was rushed with anxiety, I didn’t know what condition he was in and how he had been doing, like I said this was the first time I was seeing him.
The time had come, I had to first check at the visitors area though, but I could see his room in the corner of my eye. The first thing I noticed when we walked in was that there was a nurse attending to him. She added an IV line to the vast amount of medicines he already had and to she had also been jotting notes then she left the room to us.
My father didn’t look to be in the greatest condition, he was hooked up to a machine that was breathing for him since his doctor decided it would be best to put him in a induced coma. My mom and brother were tearing up a little, but I was just there taking in the entire situation, after playing out this exact scene in my mind I didn’t know how to feel.
My dad was diagnosed with pneumonia which is an infection to the lungs. One of the main causes for pneumonia comes from smoking cigarettes which at the time was something he did a lot. It usually takes up to three weeks to recover, but this was different I didn’t think he was getting out anytime soon.
Looking back on this situation now I’m not surprised that I reacted the way I did, I tend to tuck away my emotions and this was the first time I did this.
This really affected me at the time, I had to think about what would happen if my dad were to pass away, I was only 11. Socially I started distancing myself from others and not paying attention in class because those things came second to my personal problems.
I know that I am not the only one who experienced this, according to LiveStrong, children who have one parent for an extended amount of time begin to experience loneliness, sadness, and depression.
As for now this really changed my outlook on life as a more mature version of my younger self. I’ve learned that life is unpredictable and can shake up your life in a split second.. I have learned to cherish every moment because in a second
I wasn’t the only person affected my dad’s absence, my mom was hit the hardest if I were to pick. I interviewed her recently about what she went through, I asked her what was the most difficult thing about not having my dad around, she said “I had to work even harder because I still had to take care of you and your siblings and to go along with that I had to go the hospital every day to check up on him.”
I followed that up by asking her what she learned during this time in our lives, ‘I never knew how hard it is to raise 3 kids all by yourself, you need as much help as you can get. I had to go to work everyday, make sure you went to school, then when I came home I still had to take care of my children.
“I never thought about what would happen if he died, I wanted to keep a positive outlook because if I were down I knew it would rub off on you guys and that was the last thing I wanted.”
Now that I am older and look back even though it was a terrible situation I’m kinda glad it happened because I learned so many valuable things during this time in my life. I learned that you have to live life to the fullest because at any moment your life can change completely.