Mac's Heaven Day, The Eve of Thanksgiving
I probably get on average 25-50 messages a day personally from families and I'm so grateful for each and every one! I read their stories and think “I can’t even imagine.” But yet I can. We lived it. I know their fears, what they smell, how they sleep, the sounds of the machines they hear, the counts they want to see, the hopelessness they feel in moments and how much laughter there truly is in these rooms to get through each day. I have pushed all these emotions down deep so that I can be the ear that the families need at the time they need it. When I woke up today, I knew it was “Mac Went To Heaven Day” before I even opened my eyes. I don’t do dates. I do “the eve of Thanksgiving,” but this year, for the second time since he went to heaven 17 years ago, the date and the day matched up and that hit me hard. I look at this picture which I have never shared and see so much significance in it. In that moment my mom wanted Mac baptized. It was important to her for this to be done, prior to his first Stem Cell Transplant. Chaplin Jim from Children’s Memorial in Chicago, now @luriechildrens came in to baptize Mac. Jim had become a dear friend by this point, so it was perfectly fitting. Well, right as Jim started to perform the ceremony, Mac just started vomiting and wouldn’t stop. He wasn’t in pain. He wasn’t complaining. He was just vomiting in that moment. Jim kept going. Mac was so Mac and would yell something out in the midst of it to make us laugh. I was in disbelief and truly laughing at the timing of it and my mom had tears, because she was so happy that her son, Mac, was being baptized and she knew that Mac would one day be with God. Never in a million years did we think it would happen so fast, but this picture sums up our year of Mac in the hospital perfectly. Perfectly chaotic. Perfectly unpredictable. We are so blessed that we got to spend a year straight with him the hospital. Every moment was Mac’s. We had a year to laugh and play, to do what was now his “bucket list.” We spent two Halloweens & one Thanksgiving in the hospital. He was discharged on the eve of Thanksgiving and went to heaven while wrapping up dialysis. To wake up on Thanksgiving morning as the first morning he was in heaven, was something I'd never wish upon any family. I’ll continue to share the story throughout the day, but for now I just want to say thank you to all who believe in Brave Gowns and help keep his legacy alive! The love, support and help that you have all shared for Brave Gowns is nothing short of the best holiday Hallmark Movie you could write! You all lift me when I need it most! THANK YOU!
