Winter storm - hitting hearts and homes

I'm sitting in my grandparents den on the computer they never use.. and the house is silent. My grandmother is making minimal noise in the kitchen as she takes her medicine and worries over the "get well" plants that are, ironically, dying.

Typically, she would be reading a romance or best-seller novel on the couch, half-dozing, while my grandfather sits in his chair watching the late show -- also half-dozing. But tonight, my precious grandfather is in intensive care and we are all playing a waiting game. First it was, the first 24 hours will tell all.. now the doctor is saying the first 48 hours. I hate waiting. I've never been a patient person.

Early this morning he woke up with a stomach pain, caused by only God knows what. By 4am he was short of breath and by 8:30 my grandma was calling the ambulance. He had congestive heart failure and they lost him in the emergency room. They actually asked my grandmother if she wanted them to revive him. 4 minutes passed. He lived again. Not long after he was transferred from ER to ICU...

The call came at lunch. I rushed away from work, packed a huge bag - not thinking, just chunking things in - and began frantically calling my roommate. Without asking questions, she left work and came home because I called her crying saying I needed to get to Ft Worth to meet my sister and I needed her to drive me. I filled her in on the rest as we drove to meet Bri. Upon arriving in the falls, we found the family in icu. No change, no talking.. He's been asleep since we've been here but he's not in pain.

It's hard to see a man that you have always imagined as strong and reliable, suddenly fighting for his life, hooked up to machines. He's been sick off and on for four years, but if he could have hid it from you he would have. And to some extent he did with the strength of his exterior and the jokes extended to excuse his old age. But the reality is setting in - with bursts of tears and "he scared me" from my grandmother, to her telling him he has to keep going, to all of us trying to pretend that all is well.

I really hate this. And I think this town might be toxic..