Life was sweet previous summer, visiting new places and tasting their local dishes, enjoying the sun and the beaches, enjoying life in general...
Until an early afternoon my father was going to leave early from work due to a cancelled appointment. Left his job and hit the road on the 30 minute drive towards home but fate had other plans.
He took off on his motorbike with his helmet on, steady slow pace on a big road cause he was taking care of the really bad drivers that drive at Greece. On a intersection a driver violated a stop sign with her car, my dad saw her tried to maneuver to avoid her but wasn't enough cause she didn't even "see" him. Fell on his head and despite wearing a helmet he had traumatic brain injury.
They took him on the emergency room where they performed a surgery to lower the blood pressure of the brain.
I was informed about 4 hours later on that my father had an accident and I had to take the aeroplane to go to the hospital.
I was informed on the phone that its serious but he is going to make it. Unfortunately when I arrived the doctor hit me with the cold hard truth.. my father wasn't going to leave the hospital alive. His head injury was severe and on all the doctor's experience he never have seen a patient live through that kind of trauma.
I went inside the emergency room to see him, with tears on my eyes seeing in what condition he was I tried to talk to him knowing that he can't hear me but hoping that my words go through and understand that I am next to him.. you see unfortunately we haven't seen each other or talked for almost 3 years due to a argument we had.
Sitting on the waiting area I was talking to myself: "Maybe the doctor was being extreme on what he said to me to prepare me for the worst... yes that was it .. it definately was because my father wasn't an ordinary man, he was a strong big man, he have endured a tough life working most of his time from sunrise to sunset, I said to myself.. dad you gonna make it, you owe it to yourself.. to live some happier years than you have experienced.. to enjoy seeing your children growing an being proud of them...you got to see your first grandchild come into existence.. see your daughter finish her univercity and escort her to her wedding..
I stayed at the hospital that night.. on the morning the doctor came and told me that my father had passed away. He tried to soften the pain by telling me that he didn't experience any pain. Went on and saw him on his deathbed crying while hugging him and forgiving him for all the small mistakes he made. The ones that had us separated for the last few years.
I learned afterwards that the last few months he had a bad feeling that they are gonna kill him on the road all those terrible drivers and he won't manage to see me. I learned that he was being a better man overall those last months.
I said that he managed to stay alive all those hours after the accident just to wait for me, and when he heard my voice, felt my touch and listened that I forgive him for his mistakes that it was time to leave for the afterlife.
Couldn't finish the traveling blog after this incident and I had to come back to write this. Not sure where I'm heading towards from now on. Maybe I'll find the strength to write more posts in the future.
Take care.