It was 11:38 am yesterday when Marijo, my wife, called me. I was on my way to a meeting and missed her call.
I was driving and stopped at the corner of Commercial Boulevard and 441 in Fort-Lauderdale, Florida, on my way to the Florida Department of Transportation where I had my weekly Toastmasters Meeting with Club Voice.
Waiting for the red lights to turn green, I picked my phone, scanned through my recent calls and called her back.
Usually, she calls me just to check on me, just to know where I am and what I am doing.
She responded with a quiet self-assured voice: “honey, I am at the hospital. I just passed out. But, I am ok now.”
I froze.
“Really, I’ll be there in one hour. Can you call one of the kids to be with you? And I’ll join you after the meeting. I am the one presiding,” I replied.
“M konpran’n”, (I understand, ) she said in an ironic, unhappy tone.
I was pretty close to the FDOT building. I got in the lobby, met briefly with my fellow toastmasters, and told My mentor, Kip Barkley, to take over the meeting.
“I have to go to the hospital for an emergency case,” I told him and he asked me “is this someone we know and care for.”
“Yes, my wife”, I nodded.
I drove to the hospital. I got lost. Instead of driving the normal way I know, I tried to beat the traffic by doing some local routes which lead to dead ends.
I laughed at myself.
I pulled my phone and searched for my life stream audios which are a personal development subscription I have being part of the Life Leadership Community.
I searched for Kirk Birtle’s audio “Deal with the gun shots of Life.”
Birtle is one of my favorite speaker. In this speech, he stated “life is sending all kinds of shots at you at the moment you wish the least: always expect the unexpected, and don’t panic.”
This is a very good speech and if you want to have access to it , Inbox me. I recommend that you have a Total Access subscription to the Life Leadership personal & professional development community.
I finally got to the emergency Lobby. I had my ID pass from the security guard and went inside.
Marijo was in room 10. She was happy to see me. I was happy to see her.
It was 1:12 pm. I had an appointment at 1:30 with a colleague Toastmaster and professional writer. We have been planing this meeting for the last 3 months.
I called her to cancel.
“Hello D…. I have to cancel our meeting. I am sorry. An emergency comes up, I am at the hospital with my wife. She’s ok but I have to be with her at the moment.”
D…. answered “that’s fine. You are where you need to be. I wish your wife well.”
I spent the rest of the day at the hospital.
Marijo is well and will get back home today.
We have the graduation of our son Axel tomorrow morning. He will be leaving Cardinal Gibbons High School in Fort Lauderdale to go to Florida State University in Talahassee this Summer.
I thank all friends and family who shared this moment with us. And for those who didn’t know, I wrote this post.
God bless,
Roosevelt
rooseveltjeanfrancois 
Leave a Reply