A day before their weekly counseling session with John, Carol received an unexpected visit from her daughter Ann. The look on Ann's face showed that it was not a social call to talk about her granddaughter. "Your father has been in an accident. He is fine, someone plowed into his truck in Arizona while he was waiting in line at an exit. He will be spending several days in the hospital there before they release him. Check your phone, the hospital has been trying to get a hold of you."
Her phone had died because she forgot to recharge it, a rarity for her. Carol was now worried. Ann immediately called the hospital and was transferred to the nursing station. John was in radiology, getting some x-rays, then he was going down the hall for a cat scan. He was stable, sore, some facial lacerations. He was awake and lucid, although he had lost consciousness briefly. He wouldn't be back for 2 hours at least.
Ann got the medical update then hung up. Daughter and mother sat down and talked about it. "All these years, I was always afraid of this. Your father is a careful man, there that doesn't mean everyone else is." Then looking at her daughter, "I want to go there. Can you help me? He is precious to me. Can you help?"
Ann looked at her closely. Logic stated that this was a wasted effort, or at least a premature one. They should wait for the results of the tests. She had spoken with the nurse and the doctors. He was sore and needed to be under observation, but not in danger. It was not about logic.
The past several months have been life changing for her mother. Ann knew her mother inside and out, until lately. The craziness of Carol's upbringing had always hindered her relations with others. Now? She was working through her issues. She never did that before. From her brothers and her own interactions with her mother, this lady was reaching out, making amends, changing her dynamics. It was the same body, but not the same old draining needy person that she was.
She also knew her father. For all the time Ann knew him, she realized that he had an underlying bit of depression. The unfaithfulness of his wife gave him a chance to start over again, but he didn't do it. She and her brothers realized that in spite of all the bull shit of their parent's lives, these two people loved each other. They were not always good for one another, but they loved each other. That was a choice they both made, even if they never told each other in the past several years.
These past few months lightened her father's spirit. The personal, martial group and marital counseling have done wonders for them both. But Ann knew that they were now stuck. They had been stuck several times, and with luck and hard work, was able to move on. Not this time, the infidelity was stopping her father, her past destructive behavior stopped her mother. Both roadblocks to their future.
When someone has a near death experience, things that were important suddenly become less so. Many people suddenly realize that life is finite. Would this be the nudge to get them working together again? That was when Ann smiled, and the look of fear on her mother's face was replaced with hope.
In 30 minutes, tickets were purchased for a 9 PM flight that evening to Phoenix and a hotel reservation near the hospital. The hotel had bus service from the airport as well as to and from the hospital. A call to her youngest son, and the ride to the air airport was taken care of.