Opinion: Health woes inspire appreciation

Lou DeCaro lives in Wading River.On a summer day a couple years ago, I accompanied my father in an ambulance to a hospital in Riverhead. His health was failing rapidly.

Waiting for my brother to arrive at Peconic Bay Medical Center, I suddenly slumped over with tremendous pressure on my chest, like someone was sitting on me, and a sharp pain in my left arm and neck. It was a heart attack. My left anterior descending artery, known as the widow's artery, was completely closed.

Doctors at St. Francis Hospital in Manhasset later told me I was lucky to be in a hospital when the attack occurred. I would not have survived if I had been at home at the time, they said.

My father may have lost his life a few days later, but in the process he saved mine.

My circumstances opened my eyes and helped me separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff in my life. Before the heart attack, I had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The heart attack was the next setback.

Inspired by John F. Kennedy's quotation - "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them'' - I decided to do something different.

The natural choice for me was volunteer work. I began to teach senior citizens how to paint, and even auctioned many of my paintings to raise money for medical research. I refused to let my physical limitations stop me from helping others.

Although I'll spend a lot more time celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving took on a very special meaning for me this year because my memories of my father.

The holidays should remind everyone of how important it is to help others. More than just an annual feast or party, they should be considered celebrations of life, and the power we all possess to make our world a better place to live. If one believes it is more important to give than to receive, then all our holidays should be days of giving and thanks.

Even though I was genuinely thankful for everything in my life, before the heart attack I tended to measure success by placing emphasis on what I had. But now that I'm a little older, I'm far more thankful for what I have left. Less, for me, has now become more.