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In approximately the middle of October, our Mom and Dad both started to notice that our Dad seemed to be "dumber" than usual. For example, they began to notice that his ability to concentrate had decreased, he wasn't his “usual witty self” (his words), he wasn't keeping up with his household chores, and he was missing turns when driving.

As a result of these things, on Friday, November 18th, our Dad went to the doctor. At this time, the doctor suspected that our Dad was probably just experiencing brain fatigue and recommended that our Dad try to take it easy. The doctor also suggested that our Dad see a physiotherapist for neck pain and confirmed that our Dad should keep his appointment with his optometrist in case part of the problem was a change in his glasses prescription.

On Saturday, November 19th, after a full day of working at the cabin, our Mom and Dad were relaxing at home when our Dad suddenly felt like he might need to puke. After puking a few times, and then also appearing to pass out a couple of times, our Mom called an ambulance to take our Dad to the hospital.

The ambulance took our Mom and Dad to the Emergency Room at the Misericordia Hospital. After our Dad was admitted, a nurse took his vitals. While she was doing so, our Dad puked and appeared to pass out again.

As a result, he was then taken for a CT scan. The results of the CT scan showed swelling on his brain. Based on the results, our Dad was eventually transferred to the Emergency Room at the University of Alberta.

While in the Emergency Room at the University of Alberta, more tests were done on our Dad. Eventually, after 18 hours there, he was taken for an MRI. Another six hours later, he was finally moved out of the Emergency Room to the “transfer unit” where our family waited for the results of the MRI.

On Monday, November 21, at about 2:30 in the afternoon, two doctors on the Neurosurgery team came to see our Dad about the MRI results. The doctors explained to our Dad, Mom and Grandma Rita (our Dad’s Mom) that there is a tumour in the right frontal lobe of our Dad’s brain. The head doctor also commented that the tumour may be cancerous.

With respect to the treatment plan, the doctors explained that our Dad needs to have surgery to remove the tumour. This should happen at the University of Alberta Hospital on Monday, November 28th. Depending on how the surgery goes, it will be normal for our Dad to stay in the Hospital to recover for anywhere between three to five days. If the pathology results indicate that the tumour is cancerous, our Dad will start radiation and chemotherapy as soon as he has recovered enough from the surgery.

The doctors expressed their belief that, with respect to Saturday, our Dad was not actually passing out, but was having seizures.

The doctors also stated that our Dad would be free to stay at home until the surgery, just as long as he continued to take his medications and he had someone with him at all times.

Notwithstanding the nature of this news, our Mom and Grandma Rita both recounted that a sense of peace came over them during and after the conversation with the doctors. More specifically, our Mom and Grandma Rita were both grateful to have this information and to know what our next steps would be.

Our Mom phoned us daughters immediately after the doctors’ visit and all three of us, as well as each of our husbands, Derek, Ben and Matthew, and Kase (Tara’s and Derek’s son), arrived at the hospital shortly thereafter and waited together for our Dad to be discharged.

Our Dad was discharged at approximately 6:00 in the evening that same day (by this time, he had spent just a few hours shy of 48 hours in hospitals).

Later that same evening, our family went back to our parent’s house to have dinner together. After dinner, we spent some time talking about the journey now before us. Leanne stated that she quite literally thinks that our Dad is the best person that she knows. We all agreed that our Dad is a “tough old bird” and that he has the ability to get through anything.

Leanne also commented that our family has been so rich with blessings and, for the most part, has not had to weather significant amounts of adversity. She went on to state that all of this feels like a huge blow to that. However, she finished by stating that, in six months time or so, our Dad might have a completely clean bill of health and this will be yet another example of how rich with blessings our family is. Our Dad stated that he liked what Leanne said and that “this isn’t the end of the story”.

Our Dad's story is one of those stories that you just don't want to end. The story, like our Dad, is just too good. With that being said, the page that we are currently on is hard: it is sad, scary and so unknown. However, we are reminding ourselves that the story does not end on this page. Instead, there are many pages left for us to turn. We are so hopeful that in a few pages’ time, this adversity will lead to yet another example of our family’s richest blessings, which all come from God.

This blog is a dedication to that page - the page we are currently on in our Dad’s most beautiful story.

- Tara, Leanne, and Erin