Lessons from a Father: Lesson 2

5 Lessons from a Father

By Hope A. Bevilhymer

LESSON NUMBER 2: There is a storm brewing?

     It was a late Tuesday evening when the police showed up at my house looking for the parents of Hope Bevilhymer. I was sixteen and my parents were being informed that I was involved in an accident and they needed to get to the hospital.  The officer was very vague on what kind of accident.  My mother collapsed and my father had assist her to the car. They headed off to the hospital.
     After my parents arrived at the hospital, they were told I had suffered severe head trauma and they were not sure what to expect. After the evaluation I had a broken shoulder, a broken tail bone, a cast on my right leg from previous surgery for my club foot and both sides of my skull at the temples were fractured. With all the trauma I had experienced I was now on life support.
     Four long days passed for my parents and I awoke on that Friday pulling the tubes out of my throat from life support  I was very disoriented when I came out of the coma.  My mother looked at me and said " Who Am I?"  I followed her question in a really slow voice and said " You are my Mother, Now where the hell Am I and where are my clothes?".  I did not know how I had arrived in a hospital.
     My Father entered the room and he sat down upon the bed then asked the same question " Who Am I?" I responded the same way.  He then grabbed my hand and said "You know how we always talk about the weather."  I said, "Yes I remember about the weather."  He said "There was an accident and we are right in the middle of one heck of a hurricane."  I thought to myself okay this is not good.
     My Father had taught us growing up about his weather system.  We are not talking about the weather a meteorologist is involved in.  We have a weather system on the severity of the issue that has arose.  With the head injury it was a hurricane and I needed to be prepared for some really turbulent times. When my car was broken into and all the windows taken out.  I asked him what the weather was like.  He responded by saying it is heavy rain and you will need to put your rain jacket on, but after awhile the sun will come through those heavy clouds. So I knew at that moment it was going to be rough road through the storm, but the sun will shine. 
   As I became older, first thing I would ask him is how is the weather.  I feel this was a great lesson my father instilled in me because it would prepare me for what was about to come.  I was not blind sided or thrown off on the severity of something because of this weather system. I would just put my appropriate gear on for each different storm.  I also realized when I was older that no two storms are the same.  You may have been through something before.  Things change, circumstances change and people change. Each storm changes.
So when your faced with a storm that you are not sure what to do...  Take a moment and step back to find out how severe is the storm.... I put my galoshes and use my umbrella frequently too weather the storms.