Kellisa was only 6 months old and had only been home 2 1/2 months from the NICU. Even though Kellisa was "home", she had three surgeries (2 brain and 1 eyes) and an additional hospitalization for UTI and RSV in those 2 1/2 months. Kellisa was still on oxygen and a breathing monitor. Our situation was less than ideal: my job was in Florida, I was traveling back to IL on weekends, we had two houses and the doctors still hadn't cleared Kellisa to move to Florida. The clock was ticking. It had been a warmer than normal November and the doctors wanted Kellisa out of Illinois before it got to winter because they guaranteed she would get pneumonia if we stayed. It was Saturday, December 4th around 5pm when Kellisa's pediatrician finally gave us the OK to move.
In November, I drove our Trooper down to Florida loaded with necessities, a twin mattress for the floor, a 19" tv, card table and folding chairs...I was living worse than a college student. I believe we left for Florida the day after the doctor's OK. Our car in Illinois was a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a back seat that was too small for even Kellisa. All of Kellisa's extra oxygen canisters and monitoring machines filled the back seat around the car seat. The small hatchback area was filled with some of Lisa's clothes, but mostly Kellisa stuff. We had a bassinet, clothes, diapers, etc. Let's just say it was packed beyond capacity.
All I really remember about the drive down to Florida was getting a flat tire in the mountains of north Georgia on a late Sunday afternoon as it was starting to get dark. The weather was freezing with wind and sleet. We were on the expressway, but in the middle of absolutely no where. To be safe, Lisa and Kellisa got out of the car and headed to the woods to try and get out of the wind. Lisa had Kellisa inside her jacket with the oxygen and monitors hanging off her shoulders.
I had to unload the hatchback area onto the shoulder in the driving sleet just to get to the spare tire and jack. It's hard to remember, but we either had just purchased new tires or had them rotated for this trip. I remember because they were last tightened with one of those air guns. You might have guessed, but I could not budge the lug nuts. As I struggled, not a single car stopped to offer assistance. Where was a state trooper when you really needed one?
I threw everything back in the car and we started walking down the shoulder of the expressway to the last exit a couple of miles back. Again, no one stopped. At the top of the on ramp was like walking back in time, to the 50's to be exact. A very old gas station and a diner were the only two establishments in sight. Luckily, they were both open, deserted, but open none the less.
I walked Lisa and Kellisa to the diner and I think they had to buy something to stay inside while I tried to figure something out. I walk to the gas station and they are no help. Ready to cry as I head towards the door, I see a can of WD-40 for sale. I purchase it and headed back to the car alone. Hoping that Lisa and Kellisa would be OK back at the diner. Between the WD-40 and my strength through desperation, I was able to loosen the lug nuts and change the tire.
To my great relief, Lisa and Kellisa were still safe when I arrived back at the diner. Now it was dark and the weather still foul. We were afraid to proceed without a spare. I looked at a map and figured that Dalton, GA was the nearest town of any size. We headed to Dalton, even though it was in the wrong direction. Fortunately, we found a gas station that had a tire to sell us just as they were about to close. After an amazingly short stop, we were back on the road headed towards the promise of sunshine farther south.
We arrived in Edgewater, FL...our new home. Our furniture would not arrive for another month, so we lived like peasants. But that was OK. Every day was sunny and in the 80's. Plus, we lived just off the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean was a short drive away. There was sun, blue skies and everything was so green even though it was December. I only worked until 3:30pm and was home by 3:35. We would head to the ocean where Kellisa would enjoy the gentle sea breeze on her face. It was like we were on a permanent vacation.
We started our tradition of taking a picture of Kellisa in early December, on the beach for our holiday greeting cards. We like to leave the date on the picture to show off what it's like to be living in Florida during winter. In fact, we will be talking this years picture this coming weekend. Even though this will be our 11th year following the tradition, we still look forward to sending the picture to our families, who mostly live in the north. It never gets old...sorry.
In November, I drove our Trooper down to Florida loaded with necessities, a twin mattress for the floor, a 19" tv, card table and folding chairs...I was living worse than a college student. I believe we left for Florida the day after the doctor's OK. Our car in Illinois was a Mitsubishi Eclipse with a back seat that was too small for even Kellisa. All of Kellisa's extra oxygen canisters and monitoring machines filled the back seat around the car seat. The small hatchback area was filled with some of Lisa's clothes, but mostly Kellisa stuff. We had a bassinet, clothes, diapers, etc. Let's just say it was packed beyond capacity.
All I really remember about the drive down to Florida was getting a flat tire in the mountains of north Georgia on a late Sunday afternoon as it was starting to get dark. The weather was freezing with wind and sleet. We were on the expressway, but in the middle of absolutely no where. To be safe, Lisa and Kellisa got out of the car and headed to the woods to try and get out of the wind. Lisa had Kellisa inside her jacket with the oxygen and monitors hanging off her shoulders.
I had to unload the hatchback area onto the shoulder in the driving sleet just to get to the spare tire and jack. It's hard to remember, but we either had just purchased new tires or had them rotated for this trip. I remember because they were last tightened with one of those air guns. You might have guessed, but I could not budge the lug nuts. As I struggled, not a single car stopped to offer assistance. Where was a state trooper when you really needed one?
I threw everything back in the car and we started walking down the shoulder of the expressway to the last exit a couple of miles back. Again, no one stopped. At the top of the on ramp was like walking back in time, to the 50's to be exact. A very old gas station and a diner were the only two establishments in sight. Luckily, they were both open, deserted, but open none the less.
I walked Lisa and Kellisa to the diner and I think they had to buy something to stay inside while I tried to figure something out. I walk to the gas station and they are no help. Ready to cry as I head towards the door, I see a can of WD-40 for sale. I purchase it and headed back to the car alone. Hoping that Lisa and Kellisa would be OK back at the diner. Between the WD-40 and my strength through desperation, I was able to loosen the lug nuts and change the tire.
To my great relief, Lisa and Kellisa were still safe when I arrived back at the diner. Now it was dark and the weather still foul. We were afraid to proceed without a spare. I looked at a map and figured that Dalton, GA was the nearest town of any size. We headed to Dalton, even though it was in the wrong direction. Fortunately, we found a gas station that had a tire to sell us just as they were about to close. After an amazingly short stop, we were back on the road headed towards the promise of sunshine farther south.
We arrived in Edgewater, FL...our new home. Our furniture would not arrive for another month, so we lived like peasants. But that was OK. Every day was sunny and in the 80's. Plus, we lived just off the Intracoastal Waterway and the ocean was a short drive away. There was sun, blue skies and everything was so green even though it was December. I only worked until 3:30pm and was home by 3:35. We would head to the ocean where Kellisa would enjoy the gentle sea breeze on her face. It was like we were on a permanent vacation.
We started our tradition of taking a picture of Kellisa in early December, on the beach for our holiday greeting cards. We like to leave the date on the picture to show off what it's like to be living in Florida during winter. In fact, we will be talking this years picture this coming weekend. Even though this will be our 11th year following the tradition, we still look forward to sending the picture to our families, who mostly live in the north. It never gets old...sorry.
Christmas was approaching fast while we enjoyed shopping in shorts, t-shirts and sandals. Lisa felt strongly that we needed to spend Kellisa's first Christmas back in Illinois with our families. I couldn't disagree, but knew Kellisa wasn't clear to fly yet. In addition, I had a new job and already missed months of work for Kellisa related activities. I did not want to ask for more time off, especially since Kellisa's future health was still a great unknown, making it impossible to project when and how many more days I would need off. That left a three day holiday weekend to drive 2,400+ miles round trip while visiting both families.
We left after work on 12.23 and drove just into Tennessee where we stayed at a hotel for a short night. Christmas Eve saw us drive all the way to Nana's house in Chicago where we arrived just in time for dinner and presents. I should mention that Lisa had a special Christmas red dress for Kellisa.
.................................................... Kellisa with grandpa
...........................................................Courtney and MarkWe spent one last night at our Bolingbrook house cuddled up on the floor in Kellisa's bedroom. Christmas morning came, Kellisa wanted milk and got a Vtech toy:
Christmas day was spent at Jim and Diane's house in Naperville. I remember learning that they were moving to Dallas while eating Christmas dinner. Again, Lisa had Kellisa dressed in a second Christmas dress, this time it was green. We hit the road shortly after presents. Of course, it was a ragging blizzard and it took us four or five hours to barely get into Indiana. It should have taken about an hour or so. Frustrated, we pulled into a hotel for a few hours of sleep. Now we had to really push it because I was suppose to be at work the next morning.
... ........ .................Diane, Jim, Jackie, Jennifer and Kellisa
.. ...................... ..................Kellisa with Grandma
.... ... ............... ..........................Jeff and RosieThe weather was marginally better and it took us until 1am to reach Atlanta. At this point, I could not drive another mile. We secured a hotel room and slept 3 or 4 hours. There was no way I would be at work the next morning. We headed out by 5am. At some point I called work and left a message for my boss that I would be a little late. We drove until Lake City, FL and I had to pull over to sleep an hour or so in a McDonald's parking lot. Refreshed, I was able to finish the drive to my work and left Lisa to drive the 2 miles to our house. I crossed paths with my boss while trying to sneak in and all he asked was "did you go back to Chicago for Christmas?" I couldn't lie and said yes and he just smiled. I'm sure he was thinking we were crazy.
As December ended, January 2000 started. At midnight, we were on the floor watching our little tv. We woke Kellisa just before the year changed. Barely awake, she was a good sport for her first New Years.
We spent 01.01.00 at Blue Springs State Park, FL. It was another beautiful, sunny day in the 80's. Kellisa would go on her first hike this day. It seemed like a million miles from the cold and blizzards of the Midwest. I swam in the spring and was a little nervous because there was a sign warning that there could be alligators in the water. To this point, we had not seen any alligators anywhere in Florida. I was like a little kid hoping to see at least one, but was OK with the fact that I didn't see any while swimming.
To make some extra money, I moved our possessions from Bolingbrook to Florida in the middle of January. Coronado was willing to pay movers, so I just had them give me a check. I flew back to Chicago after work on a Friday. I had arranged to rent a moving truck near Midway Airport. Of course, nothing is ever easy. The rental truck place was out of trucks even though I had a reservation. They called around and found a truck at another location. They gave me a pick-up to drive to the other location. I lost a precious hour, but was glad to have a truck, especially since I needed the largest truck available for rentals.
My dad and awesome brother-in-law Rob met me at our house in Bolingbrook. Everything was packed and ready to go. I don't think my dad was too happy because I was so late getting there and this was before cell phones. Anyway, they helped me load all the heavy stuff and then they left to return to Chicago. I packed the truck all through the night. I slept maybe an hour or two on the floor of a freezing cold house, the utilities were already turned off. I finished loading from the house in the late morning. We had a small storage unit filled with extra boxes and furniture that I still had to load. To this day, I have no idea how I got the truck through the tight turns to get to our storage unit. It couldn't have been planned any better, every square inch of the truck and cab was filled with our stuff...it all fit. There was barely enough room for me to sit, but I knew I could make it. I was also able to squeeze Boris and his kennel into the truck.
Since it all worked out and I'm assuming (hoping) all statutes of limitations have passed, I will share what we did with Boris. For those that don't remember or know, Boris was our pet beagle. We did not have room for him in the cars when we moved down to Florida. Even if we did, he liked to chew on Kellisa's oxygen tubes making it impossible for him to be around Kellisa. He lived in our backyard 365 days a year, so the cold was no problem. However, we were afraid to leave him in the yard since he always found a way to escape, earning the nickname: Borisdini.
......... ........ .............The day we bought Boris (July 1992)We needed to do something with Boris while we were in Florida and the garage was empty. Seemed like the perfect solution. I filled a kids plastic pool with drinking water and dumped a couple bags of dog food on the floor. I set up a sleeping area with a nice carpet pad for Boris. It was a 2 1/2 car garage that was plenty luxurious. This is how we left Boris on 12.05.09. We replenished his supplies on Christmas. Boris was fine and extremely excited to see us and it was heart breaking to leave him for a few more weeks until I returned for our things. Again, he was OK and this time I would be taking him to Florida.
Back to the driving the rental truck. I left Bolingbrook late on Saturday. I figured I would drive fast to make up time. I did not know that the truck topped out at 55mph. It was excruciatingly slow. I drove most of Saturday night/Sunday morning. I did sleep, sitting up in the cramped cab a couple of hours at a rest stop in KY or TN? I drove all day on Sunday. I remember calling Lisa from a gas station in St. Augustine, FL to tell her I'd be home around 8:30pm. After calling, I went into the gas station for supplies, walked Boris and jumped back in the truck. But, there was a slight problem. I had somehow lost the keys, the only keys to the truck I rented a 1,000 miles away. I searched everywhere in the dark outside and inside the station with no luck. I was near panic and I returned to the pay phone area ready to call Lisa so she could help figure out a plan. Then I saw a puddle off to the side. I got down and felt around in the puddle and unbelievably, I found the keys! I was back in business. I pass this gas station several times a month and the pay phone is still out front. This memory is as vivid as if I lost the keys yesterday.
I got home around 9pm. We lived in a small neighborhood that consisted of mostly retired folks. As I backed the truck into our driveway, the beeping from the truck woke up most of our neighbors who were in bed by 7pm. Of course, they all had to come outside to see what was happening. We had a narrow driveway, it was dark, I was trying not to hit the mailbox or light pole and I had many eyes watching me. I backed up to the point where the truck was actually touching the gutter on the house and the front end was maybe 2 inches into the street. I didn't care, I was home and done working for the night.
One last story. Boris was born outside on a farm and lived his entire life in our Illinois backyard, no matter the temperature and snow/rain conditions. Even though he had a "dogloo", he would usually be found laying and sleeping right out in the snow during the winter. We had a rule: if it was 30 below, we would bring him inside. Those were some long nights because he would sit by the patio door over looking his yard and cry all night.
We were worried how he would adapt to Florida. The 2nd or 3rd night Boris was in Florida, we had him in the side yard. The low was in the 60's. In the middle of the night, we were awoken to someone banging on our front door. I jumped up thinking a neighbor was in trouble or it was "go time" with an intruder. It was an Edgewater police woman. She told me we were committing animal cruelty by leaving Boris outside in such "cold" conditions. I thought she was joking, but she clearly wasn't. I wanted to tell her she was crazy and tried explaining that Boris was from Illinois and spent many nights that were well below zero outside without any problems and that the 60's were like summer.
Nothing got through to this cop, I even tried explaining that if we brought him inside that he would literally cry all night and keep Kellisa awake since she was extremely sensitive and scared of the slightest peep. Any small or sudden noise and Kellisa would cry hysterically for at least a half hour while struggling to breath. I was talking to someone who values animals far greater than babies and she was ready to arrest me for animal cruelty. I was given one last chance to bring Boris inside and I agreed to avoid jail. I was also told that she would drive by our house every night she was on duty and if she ever saw Boris outside that I would be arrested. Very predictably, Boris cried all night in our garage and no one slept.
We were in a real bind, our choices were: A) getting arrested B) Boris and Kellisa crying all night, every night C) giving Boris away D) driving into the woods and letting him go to survive in the wild. I was leaning towards D, but a couple of days went by without a decision and I took Boris to the vet to get him legal in Florida. During the exam, they discovered that he had stomach cancer. He died a couple of days later which unfortunately solved our problems with the local law enforcement. I still feel bad that he spent his last days crying in our garage in Edgewater. We had him cremated and when I returned to Illinois in February to get our house on the market, I spread his ashes in his backyard in Bolingbrook.
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