I'm sick. Blah!

Ron here...

So I got hit with something horrible last week. Maybe strep, but at this point it feels more like pnemonia or bronchitis. Fever, chills, aches, stuffed head and congested chest. Good times. Blah!

Unfortunately for me, the timing of this was not so great. I was scheduled to play and sing at church Saturday night and Sunday, and I also agreed (happily) to do a charity acoustic gig on Saturday night for the Y Strong Kids Foundation. Under healthy circumstances, it would probably be pushing it a little to do church and a gig, but being that I was this ill, it was definitely feeling like a challenge.

I don't say any of this to garner your sympathy though.

Saturday afternoon as I'm getting ready to take the girls over to grandma and grandpa's for a play date and sleepover so daddy can play music, I was starting to get very concerned about being physically able to play and sing. My voice was rough, my head stuffed and my chest beginning to feel constricted. I had the girls' stuff packed and the car was warming up. They had gotten into their boots and were getting their jackets on. As is pretty typical, we were running a little late, and I was getting frustrated (also pretty typical). I told them how we needed to get going so I could make it back home in time to rest because I was feeling crappy and wasn't sure how I would be able to sing over the next 24 hours and that I really wanted to lie down. Wah.

Then Millie looked at me and said "Daddy, just do it how Mommy did. She would sing the words, and then pause and breathe where there's no words."

I know she didn't mean to make me think what I did next, but for the rest of the weekend, all I could remember was that my wife sang with lung cancer. Sometimes with chemo running through her veins at the same time. And it wasn't like she mustered up the energy to pull it off as a one-time trick. She did it several times after she was diagnosed with stage 3 lung cancer (which her doctor later said should be reclassifed as stage 4, but Beccee wouldn't let him do it). After her diagnosis, she sang at the Love for Life benefit in the park, the Eric Benet concert, a local community prayer event, the studio recording for the song Love for Life, live on the radio (in the morning!), and at Crosspoint Community Church a few days before her entire right lung was removed because the tumors had advanced too far to save even a single lobe.

And I'm gonna feel sorry for myself because I have to sing with the sniffles?

I decided to go with Millie's idea.

I paused and breathed.