Years ago I heard an episode of the Radio drama Adventures In Odyssey. I don’t really remember that episode but I do remember the young girl character was told, ‘Whenever you’re in the middle of a dream, and you think it’s going to be bad, you say real loud, “Go away bad dream, BOO!” and the bad dream will go away and you’ll wake up.’ Tonight I want to shout it from the mountain tops. Go away bad dream, BOO! This bad dream is not going to go away. I lost my 29 year old son tonight. That is wrong, I did not lose him, he died. It is not right for parents to outlive their children. He was too young. His name was Dale. I loved him more than words can tell.
This evening we got a call from the hospital telling us Dale was in cardiac arrest and to come quickly. We raced to the hospital. I won’t tell you how fast we drove to get there. The first time we ever drove that fast was the day I was in labor with Dale. Dale was my third child. I had been through two labors and two deliveries before his birth and I knew that he was coming quickly. He would not wait, so we drove fast. The second time we ever drove that fast was when Dale was 11 years old and we took him to Europe on a vacation. Just Dale, my husband and me, and Dale’s baby sister. We had a fast rental car and while I was sleeping in the back seat of the car, my husband decided to see just how fast the car would go. I woke up during this test for speed. Let me say, I was not amused, but Dale LOVED it. We drove fast. This night was the third time we drove fast, yet it was not fast enough. It was not fast enough to keep Dale from dying. They performed CPR until we got there…but he didn’t make it. My husband, Dale’s sister and I were with him when he passed. Dale was just 29 years old. He did not take his own life. It was not an accident. We were there when he passed away.
Dale checked himself into the hospital earlier in the day. They said he was okay, or maybe they didn’t say he was okay, I can’t remember, but the doctor told us, “…then things went bad.” Dale was dehydrated and his electrolytes were way off. His heart could not take the strain, he went into cardiac arrest and he died. They had performed CPR for a long time. Long enough for us to get to the hospital to say goodbye. How do you say goodbye to your 29 year old son? They asked if I wanted to be there when they stopped working on him. I said no, yet the bad dream did not go away. I knew Dale could not be alone and got up and went to be with him. I held his hand I told him I loved him, and yet that was not enough. He died. My son is dead. Go away bad dream, BOO!