This picture was taken in the springtime of 1990. Ashleigh is wearing her beautiful new Easter dress which we purchased on a fun Mommy and Ashleigh shopping day at the mall. On her head she is wearing a floral and ribbon wreath that Becky Johnson made for her. Her eye was perfectly straight... we had no idea what was ahead. Sometimes... ignorance truly is bliss.
There was a brief time (note the emphasis on the word brief) that I considered August 15, 1990 to be the last happy day of my life. Any problems that I did have, or thought I had... perhaps weren't the big problems I thought they were.
The summer was coming to a close and the first day of school was just ahead. My biggest concern was the fact that Andy was going to start Jr. high. I was struggling just a bit with that; this milestone was a big step for me, as well as for my firstborn.
I remember that August 15 was an extremely busy day. It seemed that I was rushing from one thing to the next, and the next... I was serving in my ward relief society presidency at the time and had spent the morning in a presidency meeting where Ashleigh accompanied me. There were several other things going on during the day culminating with our neighborhoods annual eat-in-the-street party that night. I remember Ashleigh seemed a little out of sorts while at the party, but then again... it had been a long and busy day, she was probably tired, and maybe her eyes were sore.
It was just two days earlier that we had seen the eye doctor and received the news that Ashleigh would need glasses. Her eye crossing inward had been such an obvious signal, but after the visit (and I remember even a few days before) we noticed that she was bumping into things, in fact, she seemed to be a bit off balance and leaned toward the right as she walked. We were sure that it was her eyesight... her glasses would be here soon and then everything would be just fine... or so we thought.
We hadn't been home from the neighborhood party for very long when the phone rang, it was my friend Lori, who happens to be a nurse, she also served in the relief society with me and had observed Ashleigh that morning at our meeting and also at the eat-in-the-street that evening. Lori called to tell me that she was concerned about Ashleigh. She told me that children who needed glasses didn't suddenly start bumping into things, that they were actually used to seeing through their eyes. She suggested that I take Ashleigh to see her pediatrician. She expressed some concern about calling me, but told me that she loved both me and Ashleigh and felt that she needed to call. I thanked Lori and told her that I would call the doctor in the morning, when I hung up the phone... Ashleigh threw up.
Yes... there was a brief time that I thought August 15, 1990 was the last happy day of my life (probably because August 16, 1990 was the worst day of my life, with a few more "worst" days ahead), but in reality... August 15 was really just the last day of a part of my innocence... the day before I was "awakened" in a way, to the harsh realities that can come to us in this life, and in my case... every parents worst nightmare.
2 comments:
I'm glad you are writing all of the down. I had no idea of any of the stuff going on with Ashleigh at this time because I was in TX. We were actually finally moving back to UT while you were dealing with it. It was a phone call home to mom when we stopped in Gunnison, UT to let her know we arrived there safely that we were informed of Ashleigh's condition. Not that it would have made any difference, but even though we had planned to stay the night at Cory's mom's house, we ended up getting right back into the car to hurry home.
What a beautiful girlo. and she is wearing her bracelet.
Many memories.
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