But wait! It's Father's Day!

June 21, 2026. International Yoga Day. Summer Solstice. Father's Day.

International Yoga Day reel made. Check!

Yoga Mala taught for the Summer Solstice. Check!

Father's Day....

To my husband. I asked my him several times. All he wants to do is watch the US Open. Easy enough.

To my own father.

That's a tough one.

Over the years to be honest, it's become an "as needed" relationship. I spent most of my life not feeling seen or wanted and I tried so hard to change it. At some point, I let it go. In the meantime my father's heath had declined.

I honestly think a lot of my personality comes from him. I would say I'm my "father's child". He smart and sharp. I'm sure if we were peers, we would have been thick as thieves.

He's had his struggle with addiction and I won't pretend to understand, explain or diagnose. However, I'll share my experiences.

My daddy. I really wanted a 4Runner when I was a teenager. I thought I knew everything when I was seventeen and I certainly had my mother's tenacity. I marched into Darcars Toyota on the Golden Mile with $500 cash to put a down payment on "my future 4runner". I think that was the first time I remember being talked down to. I felt like the salesman, with the belly hanging over his belt and greasy slicked back hair laughed at me and my $500 deposit. It was 1998. I feel $500 was a lot! I was humiliated for a day and a half but had to pivot. What else could I buy? How about a 1995 Jeep Wrangler. Hard top that got all of 14 miles to the gallon. I was just about to turn eighteen, graduating from high school and absolutely needed some kind of vehicle with a car payment like that even though I was driving a car without a car payment at the time. Hindsight is 20/20! My grandparents kindly co-signed for my Jeep and I was hot shit! Now I have this Jeep with a hard top and I have to some how get it the top off for the summer. Daddy...

He rarely let me down.

We all have our stories with our parents. It's been a few years since I've realized that mine are human just like you and me.

If you read an early blog of mine about how I got into Yoga, you read that my dad developed Type 2 Diabetes and my mom wanted him to exercise. He signed me up to go with him. He developed diabetes because he drank cough syrup due to his addiction. I remember the two of us going to the Y to sign up for the next session of Yoga and he couldn't get a sentence out to the lady at the front desk. I was so confused at the moment. I took over and quickly explained that we were there to sign up for Yoga. Again, I won't pretend understand, explain or diagnose. All I know is that my father grew up in Eastern Kentucky and his younger brother drowned when he was a kid. I can only assume that this created such trauma that led to addiction.

My father was in the Navy when I was born. I was born in Newport News, VA. He was honorably discharged and began working for Vitro, a defense contractor afterwards. This brought us from VA to Frederick and eventually to Walkersville. My dad never shared anything that I'm aware of but apparently he's told Ramsey all kinds of stories of being in the Navy. An opportunity for men to bond I assume.

My dad eventually worked for NIST. From what I understand, once you're in with the federal government, you're good for life. Sadly his drinking led to his resignation. He quickly found work at FT Detrick. My dad is brilliant and has a background in Autocad if that means anything. I'm not sure what that means, honestly. The reason I share this part is because one day he was working at FT Detrick and something happened. He fell and broke his leg. He laid in pain in the office but no one was around. From what I remember he blacked out from the pain but when he woke, he pulled himself up into an office chair with wheels. He managed to wheel himself to an elevator, get to the ground floor and crawl his way to his truck. The next morning my mom found him sleeping on the couch in the living room and took him to the hospital.

He was eventually asked to retire early. No one wants that because you don't get full benefits but it was what needed to happen.

There was the time when he had a dental appointment. I'm not sure what happened with that. Later he went to a meeting. My dad was always going to meetings. They're AA meetings. I have such animosity towards AA. He didn't come home that night. My mom called me the next day ( Friday) asking if I had seen him. We live two miles away. We hadn't seen him. I went looking for him along with my in-laws. Ramsey came home from work to watch Brody. My mom called the police and the put out a Silver Alert. Turns out he drove up Rt. 15 until his truck ran out of gas outside of Dillsburg, PA. Thank god he just went straight up north. Some good Samaritan saw a man with a cane walking along Rt 15 and picked him. My dad had taken all of his pain killers from his dental work in one dose and didn't know his own name.

And then there was Germany.

My mother went on trip with the Frederick Chorale to Germany and she had an accident. She stepped off the curb and unexpectedly broke her leg. WTF?! It's a crazy situation. The people in group were calling and saying that one of us needed to come there and get her. This was beyond me. I didn't have a passport. Jeffrey, my brother didn't have one either. I'm not sure where my sister was at that time. It was so stressful trying to figure this situation out. I think my dad was considering the trip but honestly, that wasn't happening. I remembering having lunch with my brother trying discuss the plan however we didn't get along very well. At the time my dad was watching Brody regularly on Wednesdays and Fridays. I never thought that this situation was putting him out. On the contrary, I thought spending time with Brody was good for him. It was Wednesday and my dad was supposed to be there so I could go to work. I'm not sure if I called over there or he just showed up. What I remember is that he charged up the front steps more energetically than I have seen him in a long time. He also grabbed his chest and laid on the couch. I was a bit confused but headed to work.

He slept on the couch for nineteen hours. I did get up to drink a coke in the middle of it and pee but went right back to sleep. All of it didn't make sense. I remember going to my local gym and thinking really hard about the situation. I think I texted my mom. She may have had a broken leg but she wasn't dead. She was in a hospital in East Germany and in good hands. Something clicked in my mind. "I think his blood sugar is too high." I decided to take him to the ED at Frederick Health. First and last time anyone smoked a cigarette in my car. As soon as week go there he decided to get a Coke out of the vending machine. When the triaged him, his blood sugar didn't register. It was well over 500.

We sat in the ED for a while. It was then I learned, always bring a cell phone charger with you. Eventually someone with an EKG came . The placed the pads on his chest and created the small talk. Things felt relatively calm. All the sudden the lady reading the EKG says "sir, you've had a cardiac event." Jesus.

He was admitted and I went home. This kind of stuff is harder to understand than what you see on ER or Grey's Anatomy or The Pitt.

While he was in the hospital I was trying to figure out how to get my mom home. The fellow from the Frederick Chorale said one of us had to come get her. I'm the fixer. I feel like I have to do that. I didn't have a passport but I did drop two grand on a flight to Frankfort with the faith that I could get a passport. Six hours later I had a panic attack. I couldn't do it.

My mom's a strong woman. She didn't need me to come get her.

I went to visit my dad at the FMH everyday. You know how things go. Patients wait on their schedule. The first day he fasted for I don't know how many hours for a test. Once he got back to his room and was served food, there were bugs in his food. He was like "it's okay". I brushed it off. He was okay.

The next day he had a test were they injected dye into him to find any blockages. It seemed like everything went well. He was back in his room about to eat. It was about 4pm. All of the sudden he couldn't breathe. He hit the call button. The nurse came in and looked at his stats but not him and said "sir you need to calm down". She left. He still couldn't breathe. He asked me to get him "robitussin dm". If the nurse wasn't going to listen to him, he would know what would help. Next thing I know six people were in the room and he was wisped away to ICU. I stood in his room where his bed was, with my bag in my hand. Someone took me down there. Crazy enough a nurse that was working there was someone I worked with at Bob Evans. She was so sweet! My dad thrashed around on the bed, searching for air. He begged to be intubated. It was about six hours later when the ED doctor came out explaining my dad had a heart attack and they had to put a balloon into his chest. He was later flown to Johns Hopkins. I sat in the parking lot of FMH deciding "do I tell my mom after all she's been through?" Truth be told I needed my mom. I couldn't handled this anymore.

My dad had a quadruple bypass. My mom took executive class home from Germany. Everyone survived and I now have a prescription for high blood pressure medication.

My dad's like a Timex. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking!

He's a funny one. He used a cane. He made joke of it saying that people would feel sorry for him. I get his humor. I doubt he ever wanted anyone to feel sorry for him.

And then there was 2022 ( I think) The poor man slid down the stairs head first and broke both legs. He broke both legs! I often think about the movie "Unbreakable" with Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson. I've seen my dad fall too many times. I can't handle it anymore.

He's only two miles away and if he needs me, I'll be there in a heartbeat.