Indiana

An Early Birthday Present

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

Although I don’t turn another year older until Saturday,  I got a really cool present early.  It wasn’t cigars, really good scotch or even a ridiculous amount of iTunes cards.   I got a healthy Dad.

A few days ago my father was at his bank in Chicago and felt dizzy and blacked out.  The tellers got him to the hospital where we found out he blacked because sometime earlier he had suffered a mini-stroke and wasn’t even aware of it.   After doing some tests we found out he had an artery in his neck that was 99% blocked.  The doctor, whose last name was Khan which appealed to the Trekkie in me, told me the surgery was pretty standard, but with my Dad at 73, there is always some risk involved.

He had surgery yesterday, came through like a trooper and is recovering quite nicely.   For all the success we achieve in this world, there’s nothing like good news about your parents.   I also have to give some serious props to the future Mrs.  Shabazz she was a rock during all this and kept her future husband pretty well grounded.  Now I definitely know I am marrying the right person.

So no matter what cool presents I’ll get and awesome party I’ll have, I already got the the best present, my Dad.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on May 21, 2009 (boomark / email).