Fathers and heart attacks

The father of one of my best friends went into the hospital yesterday with a heart attack. The timing couldn't have struck me worse, as this week it's one year since my own Dad went into the hospital with a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm and died.

It isn't just the fact that it's one year since Dad died, but the heart attack that my friend's father had is eerily similiar to the heart attack that my Dad had about 10 years ago: It was quickly identified as a heart attack, and within an hour was being treated in the Cath Lab using angioplasty.

My Dad made a full recovery from the heart attack, and so will my friend's dad. Already, my friend reports that he's "out of ICU and doing better and better."

When we talked on the phone last night, my friend and I had that empathetic moment: I was feeling for you today. No, I was feeling for you. We didn't go deeper with the discussion. I don't think either of us particularly wanted to cry at that moment.