20 Years

20 years ago, today, my life changed dramatically.
Days earlier, I had been called off a training mission in Kansas and told that my Dad had suffered a heart attack and was given a 5% chance to live. I loaded up my van and drove 800 miles, just to hold his hand and stroke his hair just about 14 hours before he left this world.
I never had any thoughts about leaving the Army before that day. Daddy's death hit me hard. I began a downward spiral that could only lead me to a worse fate.
Backup about three months: I was home on leave, between duty stations, for 45 days. Though I tried to hide it, Daddy saw the drunkard I had become. He smelled the cigarette smoke on me. He never said a word. He loved me regardless. But near the end of July in 1993, he went to his Pastor and said he had been praying that if it took his own death for me to come to Christ, he was willing to die. He had suffered some respiratory problems recently, but the doctor said his heart (bad valve) was doing fine.
God doesn't need a medical history to take us from this world. Daddy's first heart attack was his last, outside of a hospital.
I returned to Ft Riley, Kansas determined to get out of the Army. My motivation had apparently just died. But it wasn't just the Army motivation that I lacked. I didn't really care about anything. I spent my time off drowning my sorrows, usually alone at area bars. I had no real friends, and just enjoyed the escape.
I've said before that I believe God was answering Daddy's prayer when he saw me in Silverado Saloon, and saw a young lady there who though she was just as far from God as I was, He knew that she was the "help" fit (meet) for me. We had both made our own bad decisions to get to that point, but God knew that putting us together would bring us out. She saved me.
So today, on the 20th anniversary of my Dad's promotion to Heaven, I wish not to mourn his death, but to celebrate, with tears, the string of events that it set off, due to his prayer. From Daddy's deathbed, to Tammy saving me from myself, to God saving both our souls from sin just a few years later.
20 years ago, today, yes, my life changed dramatically!