EXPRESS MY SINCERE GRATITUDE
I wanted to take this time to finally express my gratitude, my husband, Grand Master Bob Chaney, of 14 years passed away from Congestive heart failure & Amyloid Heart Disease on March 27th, 2016 Easter Sunday. I’m not going to lie, though I may look all together on the outside, everyday I find myself having to tell my heart to beat. Still walking around feeling a little numb, I know I need to allow the natural grieving process to take place and during these moments I am so humbled and so thankful for all who came out to pay your last respects to my husband. I was overwhelmed and so thankful how everyone jumped in when I was too weak to sometimes even think for myself. Words alone can not express my gratitude to all who either reached out through social media, phone calls, letters, emails and even surprising me with your presence. When I first came to this country, my only family here was my husband. Little did I know I would inherit a bigger family than what I had left behind in Thailand. In my country FAMILY is everything! Good, bad and sometimes ugly, we learn to “just get over it” and to “just get through it” kind of attitude. Life alone has it’s own problems, but going through life knowing you have family there for you no matter what, makes the hardships in life a little bit easier to handle. We’re only human and no one is perfect, every family has its issues. It takes a village to raise a family and we believe that when the push comes to shove your family will always be there. But family doesn’t always mean we share the same blood. Family is having that common bond that brings us together and I am so thankful that the common bond that brought you all to me was my beloved husband. You all came through when we were at our weakest.
I know many of you never knew what was happening with my husband and I would like to now share it with you. My husband for the past 2 years has been struggling with a heart condition. Only until this past year it had started to progress.
When my husband’s health began to decline we both knew there was a storm heading our way that was unavoidable and the only way to get through it was to “fight”. When someone is ill, we tend to underestimate the power of the tongue. The tongue is like a double edge sword and to hear these words come from a doctor’s mouth…”I’m sorry, we recommend you to take your husband home & spend as much time he has with you ” was so powerful… and the truth about the tongue became so real. These words that came from that doctors mouth was enough to knock us down to our knees.
As my husband and I gathered our emotions together, we shook it off and did what any fighter would do, we went into our fighting stance and dealt with every blow that came our way. Life would now have me as his coach, and now my husband the fighter.
When my husband’s health began to decline we both knew there was a storm heading our way that was unavoidable and the only way to get through it was to “fight”. When someone is ill, we tend to underestimate the power of the tongue. The tongue is like a double edge sword and to hear these words come from a doctor’s mouth…”I’m sorry, we recommend you to take your husband home & spend as much time he has with you ” was so powerful… and the truth about the tongue became so real. These words that came from that doctors mouth was enough to knock us down to our knees.
As my husband and I gathered our emotions together, we shook it off and did what any fighter would do, we went into our fighting stance and dealt with every blow that came our way. Life would now have me as his coach, and now my husband the fighter.
In and out of the hospital I watched my husband overcome many obstacles. Sometimes big obstacles and some small, but he fought through every one. As I was running back and forth from the studio to the hospital, I did the best I could to keep him from worrying about “his baby/our baby”, our students. My own emotions, mental and physical strength began to weaken and I could barely breath. Just when I thought I was coming up for air, it was then I realized I, myself slowly became the fighter in this battle side by side with my husband. I could barely find the strength to be the coach to myself let alone to my husband.
I can’t thank you all enough how I saw one by one my new family here in America would jump in to coach us through this storm. You all became our voice of reason, comfort, joy, encouragement, faith and most of all HOPE. Each and every one of you took control of our ship that we thought was sinking and stepped into the ring with us. Your act of love and kindness gave us the Hope in knowing that no matter what happens, we as a family would get through this. Though I can no longer feel his touch, I know his spirit lives among us and his legacy shall live on through you and me.
Sarinda Chaney
I can’t thank you all enough how I saw one by one my new family here in America would jump in to coach us through this storm. You all became our voice of reason, comfort, joy, encouragement, faith and most of all HOPE. Each and every one of you took control of our ship that we thought was sinking and stepped into the ring with us. Your act of love and kindness gave us the Hope in knowing that no matter what happens, we as a family would get through this. Though I can no longer feel his touch, I know his spirit lives among us and his legacy shall live on through you and me.
Sarinda Chaney