An emotional rollercoster of a week
Last Friday started out plain enough for me with the exception of having to open up a show that neither I nor the cast were anywhere ready to open, but, we all pulled together and pulled through opening night and did quite well actually for being so under rehearsed. Then last Sat. morning I got a phone call from my father that my older brother, Phillip's, daughter , my 18 year old pregnant niece , Megan, had given birth to a beautiful 6lbs 1ouce baby girl named Kadence Riley Chavez. In the same breath my father also tell me that my older brother, Phillip, who has been in a vegetative state since a motorcycle accident since July of 08 was not doing well and that they had met with the doctors and they had all decided that it was best to take him off life support this Friday ( Today ) and let nature take its course. I told him I understood and that yes this was the best thing to do. I told my father that I wanted to come over for dinner on Tues so I could see the new baby and so we could discuss arrangements for my brother’s eventual death. On Tuesday I got to meet and hold my beautiful grand niece and we discussed what was going to happen to my older brother and what we needed to start in motion. Well I guess my older brother somehow new and new that the decision to take him off life support was going to kill us because later that night we got a call from the hospital that he had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and had gone down hill very quickly ( my brother also had a heart condition) and had passed away. We all rushed to his bedside. It was so surreal. The worst part was watching my elderly parents trying to deal with the loss of their son especially my father who legally was only Phillips step dad but who had raised Phillip with all the love and responsibility as if he was truly his own flesh and blood. I have never seen my father cry before but here I was seeing my father’s heart break as he sobbed by his bedside. I took off work for the rest of the week to be with my parents and my Niece to help them out with the mortuary and all the phone calls I knew would start to pour in as we have a HUGE family and sure enough we started to get calls from relatives all over the USA as well as France ,where my mother was born and still has a huge family there , and Colombia, where my father was born and he too has quite a bit of family there. Last night I was privileged to be there to witness Phillip's daughter , my niece, Megan graduate from High School. She looked so beautiful and sad at the same time because her dad was not able to see this but I told her that he would have been very proud of her and I know that he would have. So today I am at home now doing laundry and trying to get ready for another weekend of shows. I’m also trying to just let go cry if I need to or laugh if I need to. I loved my brother Phillip. I could tell him anything and he never judged me. I'm going to miss that .
My mother and brother Phillip