You see, June turned out to be a very, very hard month for me. Maybe it's time I posted about it here.
June 10th, I woke up early and flew to Pittsburgh, PA for the meet up that I would be speaking at for The Atypical HUS Foundation.
I got to my room and desperately needed a nap. For once, I didn't check Facebook. Something just told me to sleep for a bit. I wasn't sleeping long when my phone started ringing. It was my Mom. She wanted to know if I had been on Facebook. "No, no...I've been sleeping".
Jeff had passed away very early in the morning on June 10th. Before his wife had a chance to call me, it was posted on Facebook. I'm so thankful that my Mom caught me before I saw the heartbreaking news on Facebook.
For those that don't know, my Mom was married to Jeff for about 10 years. Jeff was my father figure for many years. When Mom and Jeff were no longer married, Jeff still insisted that I was his daughter. Jeff moved away to Atlanta in my late teens. I visited there, he visited here. There were a few years were contact was very sparse. You see we both had addictions. We both put ourselves through so much. There were times of hate. But mostly, we loved each other as father/daughter.
Over the past year, Jeff and I had re-connected and had a strong relationship. We talked on the phone quite often....and for anyone that knows me or knew Jeff....those conversations were long winded. HAHAHA! A lot of my personality and sense of humor comes from Jeff.
On June 8th, Jeff and I had an hour plus conversation. We caught up, shared with how we were both clean and sober, talked about life, and the future. Jeff told me how proud of me that he was that I was making a difference in this world. We talked about planning a trip this year for Ben and I to fly out to ATL so Jeff and MaryAnn could meet Ben finally.
On June 9th, Jeff went to work that evening as normal. Very early in the morning on June 10th, Jeff suffered a massive heart attack at the age of 58 and passed away.
My heart shattered. I lost a parent.
Next month, I am flying to ATL to spend Jeff's birthday with his wife MaryAnn. I can't wait to give her the biggest hug. There will be tears, there will be laughter, and most of all...we have each other, just as Jeff would have wanted.
