Our favorite parade, the Irish Italian Islenos! 50 floats, 30 marching groups, the cast of “Night Watch” (the TV show about New Orleans first responders) as the grand Marshalls’ of the parade, and 400,000 pounds of produce to be thrown this year!

It was a beautiful day. A bit warm, but at least it didn’t start off with rain like last year. We enjoyed a day of fun and laughter with family and friends. Matt’s coworker even joined us this year with his family. Dad insisted on coming with us, even after having a knee surgery earlier this week. So I put him under the canopy in the breezy shade in a comfy chair out of the aim of float throws. The girls had so much fun with their friends as did I with two of my favorites that I’ve known forever. 

Things got scary midway through the parade though. I noticed my dad was in a lot of pain and a bit disoriented. Unfortunately, our car was trapped on the parade route and even one of his friends that I called couldn’t get through it to get him home. I went over to the car to start prepping it so that we could leave as soon as possible. I looked back across the street at him to a sight that terrified me. I could tell from the way he was slumped back in the chair something was very wrong. I ran over to him and checked his pulse. Then started screaming for someone to call 911. He had a pulse, but was completely unresponsive and laying limp in the chair. I sent someone to get me his insulin bag as the fire department arrived literally in a matter of seconds from the call being made. They weren’t able to check his blood sugar and said EMS would when they got to him. I knew it didn’t need to wait, so I checked his sugar myself and just as I knew it would be it was very high. This is when I realized how thankful I am that I had come down when he found out he has diabetes six years ago and learned everything I could about it with him. This is why I knew the signs. This is how I was able to check his sugar and give him the proper amount of insulin before EMS was even able to make it to us through a parade. By the time they arrived he was sitting up and almost back to himself. The daiquiri he drank was not a good match for his diabetes. It scared us all and I know now he will be reevaluating his decisions. Typically if he gets a daiquiri he sips it, but on such a warm day he drank it faster than he usually would. He felt awful that his grandchildren saw him in this state. It broke his heart knowing how much it scared me. At the end of the day I’m just thankful I was there with him and knew what to do to help my dad. I’m also thankful that my best friend stayed by my side through the entire ordeal while our kids daddies tried to keep them distracted. And for how quickly the first responders got to us.

The girls enjoyed the end of the parade while their Paw-Paw continued to start feeling more like himself until we were able to put him in the car to leave. I don’t think he would have gone to the parade if we weren’t in town. But I do beleive everything happens for a reason and we were meant to be with him this weekend.