Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What's the hardest thing you've ever done?

What is the most difficult "thing" in life that you have personally gone through?

I spent nearly a month in the hospital a few years ago and flirted with the white light a little bit, but managed to pull through. Being in the hospital that long really sucked, but the recovery was nearly as brutal. I couldn't believe how weak a body can get in such a short amount of time or how long it took to build back strength.

The absolute worst part of the entire experience was being intubated. If you've never experienced this particular type of torture, I'll share a few of the highlights from my experience. Obviously, you're going to be in rough shape if the decision is made to intubate while you're laying in the hospital bed (I'm not talking about surgery prep here), so my recollection of some details is hazy at best. I remember being told what was going to happen, getting a sedative and seeing the doc's headlamp shining down into my eyes before the world went black. As I came back around, I had no clue where I was or what was going on. I felt something lodged in my throat and instinctively reached up to see what it was. That's when I discovered that my arms had been placed in restraints, though I didn't fully comprehend the particulars in that moment. I have to imagine that I looked something like a fish flopping around in the bottom of a jon boat on a hot summer day, trying to free myself from captivity. My family and a nurse flew across the room to try and explain to me what was going on, but I was completely flipping out and had absolutely no way of communicating with them at that point. As the fog, shock and fear slowly began to fade, we worked out a rudimentary system of blinks to answer simple yes and no questions. I graduated to pen and paper once the medical team was confident that I had my mental bearings and wasn't going to remove the breathing tube. I had that tube for a couple of days and it was pure hell.

Putting my dad in a memory care facility at age 87, and mom's health at age 86 at the same time. I'm the only living sibling and they are 2 hours away. To say it isn't fun is a vast understatement.

For me, at 18 yrs old, Mom called me into the kitchen. Said her head hurt terribly, collapsed into my arms and died of a stroke.

None of the chemo or other cancer treatments i have been through these past 6 years come close the evening.

40 years ago and just thinking about brings tears to my eyes still.

Pretty much everything between leaving home at age 19 until retirement was the hardest thing I've ever done.

I didn't expect it to be difficult when I began. I considered it an "adventure".

But I don't regret it. I don't know how difficult the alternatives would have been.

Raising two kids that turned out to be hard working, self-reliant, and good citizens.

Learning to live with my son getting killed two and a half years ago. At times it still seams like last week.

Moving my young family overseas.

It's also, the best thing we ever did !

Watching my beautiful wife of 52 years waste away thanks to the dementia destroying her brain. Went through it with my Grandmother as well. Hard to take both times.
PJ

I don't know yet how all this will turn out but so far its the folks and other family passing then my wife of 51 years. I don't think it will get any easier.

At 24, I had to bury my 20 year old brother after he wrapped his car around a telephone pole.

And I had to shoot my saddle horse a few years back.

Shooting the horse was just as tough to do. But of much shorter duration.

I have had to put down many dogs. Dogs are comparatively easy.

A dog has never carried my nappy ass off a cold frozen mountain in the middle of a freezing wind driven rain storm. A dog has never delivered me safely to camp while I snoozed in the saddle.

Burying a spouse tops my list but everything else in my life that I've had to fight off has been by my own doing or undoing. My dad always said that some people only learn the hard way.

Calling my first wife's folks to inform them their daughter was dead.

Being told that if I didn't have emergency open heart surgery I wouldn't see another sunrise. The exclamation point was when the surgeon who did my bypasses walked into the room, grabbed my bed and told the nurses who were shaving my chest that I was going to surgery NOW as he wheeled me out the door.
I didn't know that I would be intubated, as I was coming out of a coma I realized that my hands were tied to the bed rails. My RN walked up to the side of my bed as I was opening my eyes and asked me if I would try to yank the tube in my throat out or the IV lines/art line if she untied my hands. I nodded no, she released my hands. I was just thankful to be alive.

My mom dying when I was 16

Damn. That would be very difficult to do.

Watching F'ing cancer take my wife coming up on 4 years ago.

Watching EMT’s take my wife away an ambulance never to be seen again.

Burying my dad in the spring and my 1st wife the following winter. That was a really lousy year.

Accepting losing my kid through divorce. I exhausted the legal options. All that was left was to kill my ex, grab the kid, and run. That would have lead to me dead or in jail, my ex dead, and the kid in foster care. That's not a win for anyone. So I just had to accept the judge's ruling.

(It came out ok, just took roughly a decade to get there.)

some of these stories are hard on my head. I am so sorry for you guys. My story is rather self-centered and nothing compared to yours.

The hardest thing I can remember was trying to bench press an empty bar after two shoulder surgeries. I couldn't even pull the toothbrush off the electric toothbrush device.

I've almost died twice, held my mothers hand when she died, stood by my wife's side when she was having cancer treatments, there is nothing that I've been through that can even come close to this or what several of the others here have been through, I have no problems.

My condolences on the loss of your son.

Few years back, my Mom i Binghamton NY was fading pretty quickly in the hospital. I went there and spent two weeks but she did not pass. I had to return to NC at that point. I showed up at the hospital at 6am the day I was leaving and sat with her. Getting up and leaving that room was the most difficult thing I have ever done. I was abandoning her in my mind. Sat in the car crying my eyes out for almost an hour. Then I turned the key and headed south. Never saw her alive again.

I've never seen hard times or had to do anything all that tough. There were times when I thought I had problems but, when I look around, I'm pretty blessed and have been for 73 years. GD

Closing my Dad's eyes after he died.

Eulogizing a team mate at his memorial service with his his wife and two little daughters staring at me in the front row.

a lot of things were not easy, but possibly the most wrenching was finally admitting to myself that my first ex wife, the mother of both my kids, was a psycho bitch and was never going to change. Then filing for divorce, and taking custody of the kids. Then never, ever talking to her again. To this day, I don't know what she calls herself or where she lives.

33 years ago for me…there is never “closure” just a learning to live with the pain thing…Second hardest was putting down my little JRT last month… over my lifetime, I’ve had to put down at least a dozen good dogs, but losing Tuffy has been brutal…

Stay here with all the good guys gone and Manlicker keeping us all on ignore.

The struggle is real.

Yer welcome.

My wife asking me to cut her hair off as she started chemo for breast cancer. Hardest thing I've ever done

Changing the spark plugs on my Triton v-10

Same here except only one daughter in the front row.

Physically, a walk-in Dall sheep hunt in the Chugach range. The walk out took three days, and it rained the whole time. All of our stuff was soaking wet and the first leg was 3,000 vertical gain on bare rock with the heaviest pack I've ever attempted to carry, since the hunt was successful. We had to stop about every 100 yards or so to let the lactic acid in our leg muscles dissipate. The last leg was down a steep muddy non-trail where I took more than one tumble.

The worst thing I've had to do was crush my children's souls when I told them their mom wasn't coming home from the hospital. The younger two were 15 and 10 at the time.

Bros holy


[bleep]

That’s gut wrenching

Holding my 42 year old daughters hand when she passed 1 year ago from colon cancer.

Leveling a crawlspace house with 18" clearance with all ribs on left side broken and still crunchy. When you're White you still have to pay the bills!

Good lord Fellas,
This is a pretty easy question for me.
Reading all of your responses.
My Heart breaks for all of you.

Pulling out.

Dayom. Sorry to hear of that. Prayers you will be together again in Heaven.

Probably 3 things.

1. Telling my 5 year old that the marriage was over. I'd not be there every night - only to have him say back to me "It's okay Dad, bad things happen to good people. We'll still hang out"
2. Watching my grandparents die
3. Pure effort wise - language school at DLI. Never worked so hard, academically as that and I had 12 years of private school prior.

Our younger daughter "borrowed" the mini-van when we were away. She was 15. She had a head-on and looking at her in the emergency room later with every bone in her face broken was brutal.

When I woke in the hospital after my stroke , and I couldn’t speak, walk, or feel my right side.

Clintfolly ‘a wife (whose a speech therapist) taught me how to talk again.

No hard times, but packing out an Alaska moose.

Losing a child is the worst thing I can imagine. God Bless!

Had to drag a big deer out of a swamp with a torn tendon in my right foot.

1000 piece Taylor Swift puzzle was a mfer

The sky, her hair color and the wood on the piano…all same color

Well, my pity party pales in comparison to some of these stories. It just goes to show that we should be damned thankful for the blessings we are given.

I had some tough times getting to this spot in life, but hopefully have passed on good values that will keep my children centered, healthy, and happy through their adulthood.

When I woke in the hospital after my stroke , and I couldn’t speak, walk, or feel my right side.

Clintfolly’s wife (taught me how to talk again.

Telling my wife that her mother had been murdered.

Telling my 3 young sons (16, 12, 10) their mother died in a car wreck.

DLI was pretty tough. But I liked that . It actually meant something to graduate from there

Agreed - it's no participation trophy for sure. Just was the first time where I struggled academically until I learned how to learn (cliche I know but true). Managed to get honors and a 3/3/2 but damn, I sweat blood for it.

My mom passed from cancer a few years back. My folks live about a 10 hour drive from me and I had just started a job that entails almost 24 hour responsibility. For the first year, she seemed to be beating it. Just into the second year, she seemed to get worse, but she insisted that she was going to beat it and she was just fine. Her personality changed a lot in that second year, just wasn't herself. I tried to get back there as often as possible, but I also selfishly didn't go at times that I could have made something work. I talked to her on the phone almost daily, and she was often lonesome for her family to visit. At Christmas time the second year, she was in bad shape. Basically existing on pain pills and barely able to walk. We had to make the decision to put her in hospice care at the nursing home because there is no way that my dad could get her off the floor if she fell, due to his own health problems. That spring, dad called and said that we should come out and see her, because the doctors said she didn't have long. We hurried over and spent time with her. It was hard the last year she was with us, her personality was gone. The cancer had spread to her brain and she was minimally coherent. When she was, she was not at all the mother I had known my whole life. Leaving on that last day was the hardest thing I've done to date. She passed about 3 weeks later. I still feel guilt and sadness for not having done more and not being able to talk with her any longer.

Our last real conversation was when we moved her into the nursing home. I hugged her before leaving for the trip home and she whispered in my ear, "I fought it good, didn't I?" All I could do was hug her a little tighter and nod. She started chemo the day after she retired. Not one day of retirement was hers to enjoy.

Standing with my friend as they lowered his child into the ground. (spinal meningitis)

Caring for my dad as dementia ate him alive and holding him as he passed.

2 years later, now caring for my mom as her body is just shutting down but her mind is still there. Honestly, don't know which is worse!

But all of this too shall pass...

8SNAKE;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day's been behaving itself for you and you're well.

I'll start with a sincere thank you for the thread and for those who've shared some of the bumps in the road they've had.

When I read them it's difficult for me to comprehend the anguish it'd cause me if I was asked to go there, you know?

Then again the Good Book indicates we'll not be asked to go through what we cannot endure, but I'll admit sometimes when I'm in the midst of it I do wonder.

Personally I find it easier to deal with "stuff" happening to me than it happening to others I care for. My gut feel is we're all that way.

A week or not quite back I outlined on the catheter thread how I ended up in a Stryker frame for 5 weeks and then another couple weeks on top of that with a body cast. It's interesting you noted a white light as I've talked to a few people and they've related similar experience. I want to say I felt like I was about to walk across a bridge - more like a BC railway trestle though as there was that "no guardrail" feel. All I had to do was reach out and go and I'd be on my way, you know?

Because of the extent of my injuries breathing was intensely uncomfortable so I did give stopping that activity some serious consideration.

Parents weren't easy either for us or 3 of the 4 were not. I was there at 2:00AM when the EMTs loaded Dad into the ambulance with another stroke. I was the one who told the doctor not to take measures like you've described to save him at a little after 5:00 as well as Mom wasn't in any condition to make that decision. Bless Dad's heart, but he'd discussed that with me many, many times - but never once with Mom.

Both of our Mom's ended up in dementia care facilities. Having to accept that we couldn't take care of them and then watching them unravel before our eyes wasn't pleasant either for sure.

That all said and taken into account, I'd have to say holding one of our daughters on my lap as we sped to meet the ambulance - her bleeding from a head wound from a high powered pellet gun - me not knowing if she was crossing over or would have permanent damage...

Indeed that's it for me sir.

Funny how we don't even think about some of those moments, much less attempt to articulate them is it not?

We've had some financial ups and downs like everyone else, been evacuated for a wildfire once and on standby last year, but that's all pretty insignificant in comparison.

Still, when I look back on my life I'll still tell you or anyone who will listen that I've been blessed far, far beyond anything I could ever have done to deserve it.

Thanks again for the thread, I do believe it was good for me personally today and I appreciate it.

Good luck on your hunts this fall.

Dwayne

I haven't had mine yet. Burying the old man will be that day.

I have intubated about 85 patients. I always wondered what that felt like.

I thank God every day for the wonderful life I've been able to enjoy and for that reason I try to ignore or at least minimalize the few tough times I've had to deal with. After reading this far in this thread I realize how incredibly lucky I've been so far in this life and pray it keeps up. I'm sure I have things I could look back on and wonder how I got through them, but none of them would be worth mentioning among the pain mentioned in this thread. I've been lucky to have 7 brothers and sisters who have been pretty supportive to each other over the years in our own way- even though we have had our disagreements we always forgive and forget and move along with our lives pretty unscathed. Our parents went pretty peacefully, only a small intermittent bout of dementia showing with my mother at times, but both fought to the end until their bodies just wore out in their mid eighties. Not sure if we were taught or just accepted that death was a part of life but that is kind of how we have dealt with it in our time. My FIL and MIL both passed last year and it was tough watching my wife and her family going through it, but there was plenty of time and gatherings to deal with the grief and both went as peacefully as can be expected.

My heart goes out to those who have suffered and hope there is peace to be found in time. Just goes to show you don't really know someone until you've walked in their shoes...

Telling my dad that it was time to stop dialysis and let the end come.

🦫

Hitting the end of those restraints was the scariest moment of my life, by far.

Holding mom while she was naked and Dad and a family friend cleaned her up from an accident. She couldn't talk, and I'm not sure she even knew what was happening. I hugged her and told her that we we would be ok and she didn't have to keep holding on. Later that evening I gave her some oral morphine and sat with her for a while. I got up to go to the bathroom and when I came back in the room she was gone.

If we’re fortunate enough to live a long life we’ll face a lot of “hard things”. The more we are open to love and compassion the more hard things we’ll have to face.

Finding my little brother dead was hard but breaking the news to mom and dad was a million times harder. Burying my wife’s lifelong best friend that was beaten to death by her boyfriend was a tough thing. Trying to help my mother in law deal with my father in law who had late stage Alzheimer’s was tough but nothing matched the pain of hearing him beg, plead and cry …promising to be “good” if we would let him go home the day we checked him into the finest memory care facility in the state. I still tear up when I remember the terrible fear and pain in his cries that he felt in those lucid moments. All I could do in that moment was to hug him and cry. We visited every weekend from 200 miles away until Covid ended that. He couldn’t return home because he kept wandering away from home and thought people were after him….his years of working for the “company” (CIA) seemed to be intertwined with his hallucinations.

I had to deal with some “hard things” working for the fire department. The prolonged torture and physical abuse that culminated in the murder of 2 year old Kayla still haunts me 30 years later. Little 4 year old Josh was riding with dad on his tractor when he slipped off and had his head crushed by the tractor tire was hard but seeing that dad so broken was immensely harder. All the child CPR’s (a lot of them “SIDS) were so eerily similar with the parents openly begging their child back to life and trying to bargain with God as we stuck tubes down their little throats and needles in their chubby arms while bagging and compressing knowing that we weren’t going to reverse the destiny that showed as a flatline on our monitor.

I can really identify with the line Kevin Costner said in Yellowstone…”it seems that life is just one long string of losing the things you love”.

It sure beats the alternative though because if this thread was “what’s the best things you’ve experienced” I wouldn’t have enough space for the wonderful life that I’ve been blessed with and I’ll continue to endure the hard things because there’s just too many good things to miss out on.

Many of you have had some real tough spots in life. Puts in perspective for me how blessed I am, how little I have had to endure. I have wrecked a car, a motorcycle, and a tractor trailer, fallen off roofs, been shot at, nearly drowned in a flooded creek, and walked away every time. My kids are living, my wife still loves me, and both my parents are alive and well. Nobody in even my extended family has died from anything but old age in recent memory. I know every day that God has been so good to me, but this thread makes it even more clear. May those of you still suffering the aftermath of your disasters find peace and comfort in a measure exceeding the pain you have endured.

going thru my second heart attach, doc all around talking [[ doing nothing in my mind]], me hurting more every minute wanting them to take me up stairs to operating room, and get me fixed.

taking my wife to hospice at 1130 in the morning and her passing by 11pm that night,, just to quick .
we had 5 months after her Coloscomy, but that one day which was a blessing for her was hard for me

norm

Pulled the trigger on an 82nd Airborne troop that was going wild with friendly fire that was hitting base housing on the Albrook AFS side of the canal in Panama, the hardest part was when I found out he was from my graduating class in high school.


Every swinging dick unit just had to have a piece of the action there, it weren’t good.

I’m quite a bit more by several orders of magnitude with intubations but I know what you mean. For me it wasn’t the intubation itself that I thought about it was the anectine in the conscious patient that gave me the shivers. I can still see their eyes and the fear when the anectine took affect and the clock was running to get good tube placement and oxygen back into their lungs. It wasn’t much time from the succinylcholine to good intubation but I swear to God that every time I felt like it was my first time knowing what was at stake if I didn’t perform flawlessly, thank God I don’t have to wonder about my performance on any of the thousands and thousands of calls I went on.

I have permanent damage and Dysphagia from multiple bations, some over 12 hrs. I’m still alive so its just part of life !

MANY THANKS TO THOSE THAT DO THIS KINDA THING !

Having to make the decision to let my mother and my brother go. Mom had a DNR, but I had to make the call for my brother. I hope they will forgive me when we meet again.

Previously I'd of said my 18 month battle to get my then 3 year old son back after the ex absconded with him out of state.

Now I'd say the last year of my life is the toughest thing I've gone through. Mom came down sick last August, with what we later learned was lung cancer. She lived in my house an hour away from where the W and I were staying. Two to three trips a week out to take her to Dr's appointments to get it all figured out. I took the lead on everything, coordinated everything, talked to Dr's, set appointments, picked her up for appointments, etc. She had gotten very weak, could no longer walk without assistance of me or a walker.

Was in the process of trying to find a house with a guest cottage to move us all into when things went really sideways.

I'd been talking to her almost daily during the entire ordeal. Never went more than 48 hours without calling. Made two trips out to her place when she didn't answer the phone for hours on end, fearing the worse, only to find her okay.

Then one day I called, had to pick her up for an appointment. No answer, but I was already on the way. Got to the house and immediately knew something was wrong. I hear her weakly call to me from bathroom. I ask if she is okay. No was the answer. I go in to find her laying on the floor, looking like she'd been ran over by a car. Sores, bleeding arms and points of contact where she was laying on the floor. Couldn't believe it. She had been losing weight, but now she looked like a concentration camp victim.

I called for medics, and they took her to the hospital. During all this they asked how long she'd been there like that. She said 3 or 4 days. I told them not possible, I'd spoken to her two days before.

I had not. Later checking my phone in the hospital parking lot at 3am it finally dawned on me. I'd missed a call. I got busy working on a home made lever device for her inhaler so she could operate it, and didn't wrap up until later the night, and I thought I'd called. Just spaced it. Didn't call the next day as I thought I'd talked to her the night before, and I'd be seeing her the following day.

The blow to me of that realization was excruciating. Best I could figure she'd been down there 3 days. I remember crying and telling the wife "this will ruin me."

She passed 10 days later. I blame myself. I missed making the call.

Started drinking way too much, way too often. Had been eating like chit for the entire time mom was sick and after she passed....eating fast food on the run, or delivery at home. Put on 30 lbs in about 9 months.

Thought I'd close up the house for a few months, then go through her things, clear it out, and sell the house. Then the wife got an offer to transfer to AZ (my home state). We decided to do it. The following months of clearing out the house, going through mom's things, packing up our house, selling my house, buying a new house, etc., etc. just wrecked my back and my mental state.

Mom passed in late February. We are in AZ now, and I am taking 4 or 5 months off to get settled and recover before I look for work. Started drinking less, started cooking for us again, and am so far down 15 lbs of the 30 I gained. Back is still wrecked, but getting better I hope.

A lot to look forward to. Have a beautiful home in AZ, I'll be venturing out shortly for some shooting and some fishing in the white mountains, and am "healing up." The last year easiest the most brutal thing I've ever gone through, but I know if mom (and dad) are able to look down on me and see what I've done and that I'm back home, they'd be smiling ear to ear.

Yeah, I had to do that too. She laughed though, when I came up with the idea of using duct tape to remove the stubble. I have great empathy for caregivers. GD

Wow, after loosing several fingers last year from the very beginning my outlook was it's a scratch there'd thousands of people that would gladly trade places with my and what I am going through. That being said when the bandages came off for the final time I walked to my car and cried for a hour straight before being able to drive home still on tears. With a bandage on I could pretend it was just a hand injury, when it came off there was no hiding it. The kid took it harder than I did. The day before he found out his biological father died of a herroin overdose. Then he witnessed the only father he's ever known almost die. It haunts me to this day asking him to go down and help find my fingers. That being said I lost my father and mother within 6 months of each other and in between that my brother backed over my dog who was getting up there in years and fell asleep under the car. I was thinking well at least I don't have to put her down. I was wrong when I drove to the house she was lying down wagging her tail like nothing was wrong except her back was broken. Hardest thing was putting the 22 to her head.

8SNAKE- Thanks for this thread, really.
It took a little while to get the tears out of my eyes while I was thinks about the hardest things I have done and been through. I will not share these but many are them same as already been discussed. I will share that I am thankful and blessed as strange as it sounds. To the men and ladies on here , remember to give your love and kindness freely and you will continue to go through the hard times and sadness. But to have never felt all the love and happiness in the first place, that would be a horrible existence...Joe

It's hard for me to pick a "worst" and even my worst ones pale in comparison to some of the ones I've read here.

In no particular order -

-My parents sudden divorce.
-Watching for hours as my Mom struggled to breathe through her last few mortal hours.
-Holding the hand of the strongest man I know as we sat through the funeral of his wife, my step-Mother.

Probably the worst was being crushed by the news that the baby my wife had carried for 3 months was no longer viable. We were so excited about being parents for the first time.

Going by the accounts presented here...................I've not really done anything hard.

Dad was sick for quite awhile, knew he was going and I was in another state when he finally went.

Mom was in a care facility for dementia for 8 years or more. Again, I was in another state when she passed.

Knowing the sight in one eye will never be anywhere near as good as before is tough, but I've still got the one good one and DMV gave me back the 5 year license as the eyesight has stabilized at a point good enough I no longer have to get tested every two years. Difficult to deal with as I used to have great eyesight.

surgeries for me and my wife..................we're old.............not unexpected.

Jobs or hobbies that just required putting one's head down and keep on keeping on? Just the way I was raised, difficult but not "hard"?

dealing with pets etc dying or needing end of life shots? No fun at all, but one must go on, even with a couple of special ones.

Not sure how I'm going to deal with it should my wife of many years go before I do.

Most days are good, some just OK, some not so much fun.

Probably haven't had the "hardest" thing I've ever done yet.

PS, pushing my way out of an overturned car in the creek, walking downstream and climbing out over boulders and blackberry vines barefooted, going to the hospital and getting scanned and checked, having to call the wife and all that really wasn't all that hard. Just another day in Genoland.

This for me in spades.... if I had any idea how difficult it would be I would have folded....
But each battle, each set back, I just put my head down and moved forward.....

Despair is a horrible emotion!

For the time being life is better than it has ever been for me and I am trying to shake the feeling "until the next shoe drops"
Dealing with disappointment and set backs gets easier with age... you figure out what's important and what isn't.

Yes, we've BT&DT too, Scott.

Just getting ready for tomorrow, it’s like a real life version of ground hog day

I once golfed 36 holes in the SAME DAY.

No joke.

Dude, seriously,…that is a lot of phugin beer

My dad had a dnr he was in bad shape double bypass rectal cancer and liver kept on smoking said “to late now” he was a 2x divorcee lived alone I helped him on a project on a Friday and got a phone call from MIL Sunday morning about 1am she over heard on her scanner they was towing a vehicle with his plates from sheetz I figured oh [bleep] went there they said a drunk man passed out in the parking lot at 10 pm Saturday it was him going to get a pack of Marlboros 🙄 and he had the big one and his pace maker fired the rescue squad is 300 yds away and it took 10 minutes to get there they got his heart back going but he was brain dead it took 6 days for the hospital to figure that out and 3 days of listening to him moan and die per his wishes I did in all that witness just before he went him listening to somebody🤷‍♂️he had a shocked expression on his face and what ever conversation was had he was pleased with the result because he smiled and died

I call bullshit.... most pass out by the 18th hole!

Bless you all for enduring your hardships.

Hang tough Flave.

Losing my first wife in a car accident about 28 years ago.. We had said Goo Bye that morning and went off to work. About 10:30 that morning, my Principal came into my classroom, stating that 2 State troopers wanted to talk to me in his Office. Shocking and unbelievable. Had 3 kids under 10 to take care of and dug deep and moved forward. Did not date for 2 years but found the love of my life on one of my first dates and been together ever since. Coincidentally, my Dad died suddenly of a Major Heart Attack 10 days after my wife died so it was a tough couple of weeks.

Principal? You had three kids under 10 in high school?

Teachers have principals, too.

I'm assuming he's a teacher and "my principal" means his boss.

If he did he’s my hero but I’m inclined to think that he was a teacher. 😁

'flave is immune to that stuff they serve on the 19Th hole

I have seen evidence that indicates you are correct....

I reckon you’re correct, if "my classroom" is meant in the possessive. Reading comprehension matters!!
At any rate, not making light of anyones cards in life

Mentally: Death of parents,siblings, daughter, in-laws

Physically: Going in and working a mile and a half undergound in a full anti contamination suit after detonation of a nuclear device.

Full face masks, sealed suits, fresh air fans cut off, minimal lights with miner's lamps air, dewatering pumps shut off, background radiation above 150 MR. Hot, humid, actual contact radiation of what we recovered above 300 MR.

Everything had to be man handle, no hoists ,etc. from test bed to train flat beds. Everything had to be double bag, swiped for beryllium contamination and nuclear activation. Try muscling a 300-400 warhead that had to be double bagged. Carried 60 yards to the train over debris piles where the roof of the tunnel had collapsed. 8-10 hour shifts and sweated 5-8 pounds off in a few days. Then if you had a hole torn in your suit, you went thru decontamination, hosed down scrubbed until red with a scrub brush.

I did this 37 times in 30 years

Honest? Being all sentimental and all that...

Going into my dad's workshop back in May of 2002, right after he passed away and sorted through things. My whole entire childhood was in that workshop dating back to the 60's.

Confession: I'm a full grown man, alright? Wife, kids, (now) grandkids, you know what I mean? Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. Just as rough and tumble as the next guy... But let me tell you straight from the heart... That moment when you have "flashbacks" to childhood memories with you and your dad (right after he passed away) and you are in his workshop, sorting through things... I won't lie to you. I will tell it like it is: I broke down and bawled like a little girl.

Getting a call at work and being informed I was about to become a single dad of a 10 month old from a wife I love deeply ranks right up there …. It might have been worse then death …at the time!!!
All worked out though, I raised a fine young man.

Hey that’s what I’m sayin!!

I worked everyday since I was 17 in my dads storefront still do today.Him and my uncle between the 2 of them smoked Salem menthols Winston full flavor and Marlboro lights.Every inch of wood counter top edge is burnt black they’d put it in the edge and forget it was there.There both gone I have the memories but whoever winds up with those counter tops will want to know the story.

Watching my sister bury her 10 year old daughter. Dru Elizabeth Mayon died on today’s date in 2007. See her story on LOPA.org “Hero” page. She was an organ donor and saved lives.

Watched my best friend die in a car wreck. Had to go find our other friends and tell them. He was coming to meet me when he over corrected on a curve. I was wondering why he was late and then I saw the police lights and headed that way. He was pinned under a 77 Olds when I got there. Forever 16.

My wife had a miscarriage once on valentines day. I had to cancel dinner plans that night. Ten months later we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl.

Bb

Intellectually: Geology MSc after 25 years of graduating with my 1st degree.

Physically: Hoisting my hog every time I take a leak.

Emotionally: Daughter in hospital for 10 days for unknown condition & dealing with her hypochondriac mother & grandfather (pediatrician) who insisted she had a rare disease that I knew she couldn't possibly have - 2 years of BS on that one that could have killed her, what with all the extremely dangerous medications they were pumping into her.

Sounds like we've all had many bad life experiences

Condolences to all that have posted

My worst.....1968 when my brother Les was killed in the senseless 'Nam war

He was 21 at the time.....I was 16 & still in HS

My Mom was never the same

The Marine body escort actually stayed at our house then

I can still hear the taps.....gun salute....

pic......brother Les......RIP

Still wonder how life would have been if he was still around