38 Lunness: 1948-1968
An Awakening:
For a moment, a flash, a
splash in time, I saw my father standing beside me. Six weeks prior, my heart also surprised me,
presenting me with a heart attack.
We walk around
confident we have a firm grip on matters and then wham, all changes.
There were warning
signs which I stupidly and dangerously ignored. Then one night I could not
breath. My screams for help yanked my
wife, Jocelyn, from her usual deep sleep. She quickly called the paramedics.
I could not hear the
paramedics as they came up the stairs. My own screams covered all other
sounds. Fortunately, within seconds of
their arrival I was breathing. They saved my life that day and my gratitude is
eternal.
A few weeks later, I
was sitting at my dresser, sorting my medication, when I sensed a calming
presence. I looked up. It was three am. Jocelyn was quietly sleeping.
There a few feet away was my father, Sydney
Edwin Ewing, simply watching me.
Wonder and calm flowed
through me like a gentle breeze caressing the trees.
An awareness broke free
as appreciation and understanding momentarily flooded my mind.
Dad had had open-heart
surgery in the early 1960s. He recovered and eventually returned to work for
the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). He drove the King Steet car and then
worked in the booth in the Subway system.
Mom and dad were avid gardeners. They spent hours in the yard tending the flowers, irises, hollyhocks, and tomatoes are remembered=ed fondly. Both my sister, Marlene, and I followed them. After the surgery, he never reclaimed his gard
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