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My father was born at home in Warren, RI. It wasn't long after that it was determined he had a hole in his heart and my grandparents were faced with the devastating news that their first-born child may only live a few years. It was the kind of hole that would get bigger and bigger as he grew, and what that meant to his heart was fatal.
Of course, Ed Jr. wasn't about to give up his childhood so soon, so he continued to live beyond those few years as he continued to play and enjoy being a young boy. Even at a young age, he realized how lucky he was because the next two children my grandmother bore didn't do as well as my father did...one was stillborn, the other died at the age of 9 months. About 10 years after my father's birth is when a sister was born and she, fortunately, made it and is still alive today.
By this time, though, my father was already way beyond the time that he was supposed to have died and it wasn't because his heart had gotten any better. The doctors couldn't understand it because the hole appeared to be even bigger and his heart, working harder, had gotten weaker. My grandparents held their breath everyday wondering when the moment would come, but they allowed Ed Jr to live and play as a normal 10-yr. old boy.
He made the baseball team in high school, but the coach was soon informed that my father could not play because of his heart condition, which Dad had conveniently not mentioned at the try-outs. He wanted to be on the team so badly, though, so he was made equipment manager. Before he finished school, he joined a local drum and bugle corps, The Warren Indian Band. He knew how to play the snare drum and he knew how to play the bugle even better. In spite of his condition, he made the practices to learn all the drills and music, and he marched and performed in parades and shows/competitions. The doctors didn't think this was a great idea, thinking he could drop right there on the field somewhere from all that marching around and blowing so hard in the bugle, but Ed Jr. insisted and he did it.
Ed Jr. met Shirley and they fell in love. They wanted to get married, but as you can figure, Shirley's parents weren't too anxious for their daughter to marry a dying man, although they liked Ed so much and really didn't want to feel that way. It was important to know what the doctors had to say and they pretty much shook their heads, believing that he might have a few years but something could happen any day, too, because my dad was already on "borrowed time".
Shirley insisted on marrying Ed Jr, though, so they were married on Memorial Day in 1952. The doctors, shortly afterwards, saw that the hole in my father's heart was causing some malfunctions and the overall condition of his heart led them to prepare my parents for the worse. A year, maybe two, was what Mom and Dad could hope for.
Dad kept working, though, and he did all that he could do with helping around the home. In 1954, I was born. By 1956, though, Dad's heart was so bad that the doctors were practically calling him a "walking dead man" and he had been informed of a radical new surgery that was still in the experimental stages that maybe could save his life. Only those considered "likely to die anyway" were even eligible for the new procedure known as open heart surgery because the chances of surviving the surgery were less than 50% in all cases. With nothing to lose, as Ed Jr. pointed out, he agreed to the surgery. With the chances not being in his greatest favor, he pulled through and the hole was repaired.
All those years of living with that hole and the toll it took on his heart, though, did weaken it. So, although he made it through the surgery and was told he had been "bought some more years", just how many years wasn't known. He certainly should live "some" more years, but reaching 30 yrs. old or 40 yrs. old might be his maximum.
Just like when he was a kid, though, he just kept beating the odds. And, it's not like he sat around and lived an easy life to take care of that heart or that he just happened to breeze through. He's had a number of heart attacks, one so bad that we all thought we were going to lose him for sure. He's had catheterizations and electrical procedures. Ed Jr. and the word angioplasty almost became synonymous. And, not really all that long ago, he had a pacemaker put in. He's gone through so much that he's had other things "let go" (like a collapsed lung) and he's been enduring many a thing that comes around with old age. Now, he lives with a strange form of neuropathy which requires him to use a walker and limits the use of his hands/fingers.
Yet, he worked throughout the years, for one long stretch he owned and ran his own cabinet making and furniture company. After suffering and pulling through that heart attack, he had to find something else, so he opened up and ran a small engine repair and sales shop. After that heart attack, he worked as a night watchman for a local American Tourister factory. After his heart decided to take a "nap" (this is when he needed the pacemaker), he became a part time cafeteria worker and errand runner for a seafood company, and that's where he was working when he retired.
So, the boy that wouldn't live to go to school, the boy that couldn't play baseball in high school, the boy that shouldn't be marching, the guy that wasn't ideal for marrying, the guy that was bad enough to be a surgical "guinea pig", the man that could enjoy a FEW more years of life, just celebrated his 77th birthday!
Congratulations, Dad! You continue to defy all odds!
By the way, Dad's motto for this year is,
"Seventy-Seven and Still Not Ready for Heaven!"
