Have a heart, your life depends on it

The following is a copy of a letter I sent to my children the 22nd of December. When two people fall in love and marry and have children they never know what will come In faith we go forward, in faith we follow the plan and in faith we accept what we are given. Then we do our best, praying as if everything depends on the Lord and working like everything depends on us. the two together makes us who we are. the alternatives, faith without works and works without faith are both dismal and depressing. thanks be to God and our Savior Jesus Christ for life and love and family forever. Renee

True to his nature Dad did not tell us everything about the passing of his brother. Let me fill you in--thus preventing any unnecessary faux-pax.
On the day he died, Grandmother went into his room several times to give him his medications. He didn"t want to get up and was hadr to arouse. but this was not all that unusual. When it she got no responce and his breathing had become very fast, she called the Paramedics--he was still alive att hat time. They took a little longer to get there than they had in the past and by the time they walked in he was gone. She could not find the"Do Not Revive" paper he signed and by law they had to try to revive him. Which they did, but not for too long. He was gone. The coroner eventually said he had an ischemic heart problem--often the only sign of which is death. It's a strange diagnosis, but no worse than "we don't know" Which is, as you know what we got on John. They did draw a lot of blood and there was no evidence, spoken of in the final report, of unusual drugs or overdose. All of which is a real blessed relief for the family, I guess. Really, an overdose would be easier to understand. An undetermined heart problem gives no comfort or reassurance to those left behind who may inherit the same thing. We can only pray as time goes on, as it will, that the frontiers of medicine expand to include the prevention of such things.

Meanwhile, Aunt Kathleen evidently had a racing heart episode that did not pass in a few minutes and needed to be transported to the hospital (she was at some kind fo a luncheon at the time--I think Grandmother said) She was not able to get into a Cardiologist until January--so much for managed--HMO health care. We will have to wait and see what comes of that.

Anyway, neither Dad nor I knew when we got married that BOTH sides of your family would have life threatening heart problems. Not that it would have made a real difference in our choices. We only regret that we have saddled you with a health inheritance that you did not ask for. Frankly, neither did we. But we love you all, with all our (not so perfect) hearts. and we pray you will pay attention to you health and that of your children, that future generations will be healthier and live longer, happier lives.
I love you all!!!! Mom