February 16th, 1997 9:10 p.m.

The phone rings, I answer.

“Rick? It’s Colleen”. Never in the twenty years dad was married to Shirley did my stepsister Colleen ever call me.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just wanted to let you know, that the paramedics are here working on your dad, and they are taking him to Elyria Memorial, Okay? I have to go.”

She hung up. As vague as she was I had no clue what was happening. Immediately I told C, and we gathered up the kids into a circle, and explained what was going on. Feeling totally powerless over the situation, I asked them all to pray for a moment for my dad. Pray we did, and the heavens seemed like brass. I called my mom, and my brother. I explained what I knew to both of them, and we agreed to meet at the hospital. My sister lived in PA at the time, I called her, but Colleen had already gotten through to her.