Well, friends, this is one of those stories.
Let's flashback to...
Spring 2010...
Let's start with my dad.
In the spring of 2010, my dad was in charge of our acre of yard work and landscaping, he was working full-time and more because he worked from home, he was leading a Journey small group, and, like always he had a very bad back.
Needless to say, that spring, his back took a turn for the worse.
Now, let's move on to me.
In the spring of 2010, I was engaged to Aaron and planning a June wedding, I was a senior in college and attending classes, I was involved at Journey and working there part-time, I was full-time student teaching in a kindergarten class.
Needless to say, that spring, I had a mental and emotional breakdown one night.
I was at Aaron's, trying to study and prepare for my next day as a student teacher. Plus, I had tests coming up, and decisions for the wedding were looming.
It became overwhelming, and I turned into a blubbering mess.
After a couple hours, Aaron had calmed me down enough where I could drive home. He followed me in his own car, because he's just that sweet.
He had assured me that taking a day off might just be the ticket.
So, I had decided to not go to school the next day, and that felt a little freeing.
Aaron left, and I went upstairs to my room. It was late so everyone at my house was already in bed.
I put my pajamas on and got in bed, but being alone was not working out for me.
Since Aaron was gone, I did the only thing that makes a girl feel better. I went downstairs to get in bed with my mom.
I fell right to sleep.
So the rest of this flashback comes mostly from my dad the next morning as he told us about his night...
After a little while laying there with three people in the bed, my dad could not get comfortable or fall back to sleep.
He decided his best option was going up to my vacated bed for the night.
He rolled out of bed and landed on his hands and knees. His back was so bad back then that he couldn't even walk. He proceeded to crawl out of his room, down the hall, and up the wooden, winding staircase to my room.
We all slept for a few hours after that.
Around five in the morning, my dad woke up to go to the bathroom. I had a bathroom in my room that also connected to the upstairs hallway, so he used that.
At the same exact time, I woke up downstairs and looked at the clock. I decided that I might as well go up to my room for the remainder of the night. I had set an alarm up there anyway that I needed to turn off. I didn't notice that my dad was not in bed with us at this point.
I went upstairs and into my room. I turned my alarm off. I heard the toilet flush in my bathroom. And at this point, I realized that my dad was upstairs. Aw, that's sweet of him to move up here so I could sleep down there. I shouldn't make him go back downstairs. I'll just grab my warm Cinderella blanket from the bed and leave, I thought.
At the same time that I thought this, my dad was about to wash his hands when he heard shuffling feet and a little cough from the other room. Oh, Whit must be coming back up here to sleep for the night. I'll just go back downstairs after I wash my hands.
I exited my room and headed straight back down to bed just a minute before my dad exited the bathroom through the hallway door to crawl all the way back downstairs. Down the wooden, winding staircase, down the hall, and into his room, only to find...
Me, sound asleep in his spot in bed.
He was flabbergasted. He didn't understand what happened. But, he resigned that he must have heard things.
As not to disturb us, he quietly turned and crawled away, completely puzzled.
Back down the hall, up the wooden steps yet again, and back into a bed that suddenly felt a lot colder. Weren't there more blankets a few minutes ago?
We were none the wiser until the morning when all the details surfaced. Poor dad.
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