1999 was the year of Star Wars and Isaac

1999 was the year of many good things.
A new Star Wars movie came out. Mark got a new game that I frankly didn't understand, and my son Isaac Steven Hernandez was born.
I must admit that I was still reeling from the year before. And I probably...... no make I was not as attentive as a husband as I could have been once Isaac was born.
Or even before he was born.
A couple of weeks before Isaac's birth I went to the Quad Cities (about an hour from home) and stood in line for 7 hours to buy tickets to see Star Wars. Which as near as we could figure it out would be around the time Isaac would be born.
Angie was understanding and all. But as I look back at it it reeks of foolishness.
My other big foolish thing was my friendship with a girl at work named Krista.
Krista was much younger than I. But we had much in common. We both loved Star Wars, we both loved comics, we both loved Betty Page,...well you get the drift.
If I said I didn't find something her very attractive I'd be lying. But at the same time I would never act on it. My wife was pregnant with my baby. Only a fool would cheat on his pregnant wife. And Krista would never sleep with a married, let alone a married man with a child on the way.
Besides if I was a little attracted to Krista, I was heads over heels in love with my wife. On Valentines day Angie got some stick on letters and posted on the ceiling above my bed, "Happy Valentine's Day I Love You". I couldn't go to bed without seeing my wife's love for me.
But after Isaac was born I found myself very unsure of myself. Ethan had seemed so easy to be a father to. But for some reason Isaac wasn't. He stayed awake far more than a baby his age should have. He didn't like to be touched as much.
But the real problem was me. For some reason I was distant to both him , and to my wife. My wife was very depressed after Isaac was born and I was too foolish to see it. My biggest regret is that when she needed me the most I wasn't there for her emotionally.
Isaac was born in late May. By that October I saw what I was doing and tried to correct it. Everything seemed to be going much better.
Also during that time Mark had gotten a new game, that he just loved. He played it non stop. No matter when I called he was playing. He wanted me to play it with him. But my computer at the time was far too slow to support it.
The name of Mark's game was Everquest.

1998 ....A Year To Remember

1998 will go down as the worst year of my life. In February my Uncle Kenny died. During the funeral Steve paused by the casket and said, "See you soon partner." Even then Steve had a sense of fatalism that I found unnerving.
During Ethan's birthday I saw Steve's skin had turned yellow and was very frightened. I pleaded with him to go to the hospital but he refused. I felt very helpless. I even considered running into his car. Once the police would arrive and see he was drunk they would force him to go to the hospital. I never did it, but I considered it heavily.
That summer my eye became red and swelled. I was put on massive doses of prednosine. I gained weight. The medicine made me feel horrible. And for no good reason. It didn't help. In the end the Doctor had to inject my eye with a needle full of the stuff to get it under control. I may joke about it now but it was honestly the most terrifying moment of my life.
Until the next time they injected my eye with a needle.
I was off work for a month because of the damn thing with the eye. While going to the hospital many many times that summer I was informed I had arthritis.
But of course my arthritis had to be a little different. My arthritis was causes some of my bones and spine to fuse together. And for some odd reason it was also causes my eye problems. There was nothing the doctors could do (or so they said), and oh yeah,.....It's going to painful as hell.
That summer I also found out I had an ear condition that caused extreme vertigo, and the only cure was to cause deafness in the afflicted ear.
No Thanks.
Steve got worse until he finally went to the E.R. It was touch and go, but he seemed to be getting better.
Until Halloween when he fell down in my Mom's back yard. He started bleeding internally.
By the Monday before thanksgiving he died. I was crushed. He had tried so hard during the last few months. And it was all for nothing.
The next day my Aunt died. It was almost too much to bear.
But what made it all possible to get though that year was my wife. Her hands on my shoulders during the funeral of Steve comforted me more than anyone would ever know.
During that Year she was loving and kind, and oh so practical.
I figured if we could make it though a year like that we could make it though anything.