My new watch!

[Carolina]

Today, I received a watch as a gift! Here is a photo of it:




This is not something I would have ordinarily picked out. But, it comes from my Dad, and has a lot of sentimental value attached. My father was a heavy smoker for many years. As a result, he has suffered many health problems. He's gone through heart bypass surgery, surgery to unblock his carotid (sp?) arteries in his neck as well as one by his kidneys, and a very serious surgery to fix an aneurism in the artery in his stomach. This is the same health issue that killed his own dad at the same age.

Several years ago, while starting the journey to repair all of the above problems, he became a bit short of breath. However, this issue was put on the back burner due to the severity of the heart problems he had. He made it through the aneurism surgery this spring, and was given a green light. But, in August, his shortness of breath suddenly became critical, and he was rushed to the hospital. All four children, including me, received a call to get to Connectut ASAP - my dad might not make it another day. We drove through the night, and found out he had something called pulmonary fibrosis. This is advancing scar tissue of the lungs that chokes off your ability to breathe. If any of you smoke, STOP it!! My dad was in critical ICU, and it didn't look good.

Remarkably, he made it through the night, and actually improved. He thinks it is the fact that his four children and two grandchildren rallied around him. He has stabilized, and while he will never recover from this disease, he is able to breathe with the help of 24/7 oxygen, and can be in his own home with my mom.

Unbelievably, he was still working until this last lung problem. I guess he officially "retired", because I received the above watch in the mail today. Attached was a note from my mom, telling me that dad was given this watch for 40 years of service (I'm assuming he got to pick it out himself, considering it's a ladies watch). He wanted me to have it. It's enormous on me, so I'm going to need to have some links removed. But, then I am going to wear it with pride.

So, that's my watch story! Thanks for listening!!