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 St. Patrick’s Day has always been my favorite holiday of year.  It is the day of the year that I became 100% Irish rather 50% Irish, 25% Lithuanian and 25% Ukrainian. My beverage of choice was never green beer, not really very appealing except in college but rather I developed a taste for amazing liquor, Irish Mist.  I have many memories of the holiday, some vivid some fuzzy.  Many of my best memories were with my husband.  We had St. Patrick’s Day dinners and celebrations from Waikiki to Reno to New York until six years ago.  

Six years ago tonight, I received news that no wife or family member would never want to hear.   I was standing on the fourth or fifth floor of University Hospital at the USC campus in East LA.  The doctor’s were showing me a sheet of images of my husband brain.  Earlier in the day, he walked into an emergency room with a severe headache and neck ache where he collapsed.  The doctors showed me how his brain full of blood.  The prognosis was bleak but if he survived the next 48 hours he would be stable enough for brain surgery to repair the brain aneurysm.   In order not to bore the reader I will be brief: after surgeries, experimental treatments and medications, coma, and four hospitals, nine months later I brought my husband home but a very different man and our very different life.  

I have reflected on my journey of the last six years. Until two years ago, I juggled my career and managing my husband’s care.  Like many others, I became a statistic to the ever-increasing ranks of unemployed mid level managers with a generous severance package and unemployment benefits.  After a couple of months of job search, and the quality time with my husband because I had to lay off the caregiver and maid service to save money I knew it was time to assess my options.  I decided to return to school to pursue advance studies in history and spend quality time with my husband.  In the course of my reflection over the last month, I know that if I could go back six years I would make all the same decisions even though I know it would still generate the same results.

As another St. Patrick’s Days pass into oblivion, I think we should count our blessings and make the most of our opportunities.  I have a much different life than six years ago but I would not change one minute because it has made me the person I am today.  So in the spirit of the most sacred joyful holiday of the year, Go mbeannai Dia duit (May God Bless You).  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!