Laura Update – Thanksgiving Day 2025

by Graham Hart

Laura was discharged from Northwestern Hospital the day after surgery but will need to go back this coming week for additional outpatient procedures. Her recovery from the impact of cardiac arrest is going to take time, and she will need your prayers and support as she continues her healing journey.

On this Thanksgiving Day words don’t fully capture the gratitude in my heart. I am profoundly thankful that a fireman and a nurse, who happened to be sitting near Laura at Soldier Field, responded immediately, giving Laura CPR saving her life; I am thankful for: the paramedics at Soldier Field who ran up to where they were sitting – after Grace ran down from the nosebleed section of the stadium to get help – and with an AED device shocked her heart back to life; and the three women sitting next to John and Laura, who took Annabelle, who is 12, and wrapped her in their arms while everything was happening, and the EMTs who took her to Northwestern, and Dr. Graham Peigh and the dozens of other doctors, nurses, and technicians at Northwestern Hospital who nurtured her back from the edge; and there is so much more that on this day I am thankful.

Laura’s heart took a hit, and it will take time to recover, but she is here. All I have is gratitude for all the angels who surrounded her. I am grateful for her friends and Katie who set up a GoFundMe for Laura’s Healing Journey (to help ease the stress of not working for a while, so one crisis does not lead to another).

The older I get, though I am reluctant to say I am old (LOL), the more I don’t understand… and the more I need just to say: I believe. I believe that there is a Someone somehow at work. I believe that faith, hope, and love are what ground us and sustain us. My favorite Christmas movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” There were angels around Laura that day, beginning with a fireman and nurse; and maybe even Clarence was at work. In case you have not heard it, Amy Grant has a song “Angels Watching Over You.” It is worth a listen.

One thankful Dad…
Graham Hart