April 2017:  In spite of her own poor health, Wendy mows her yard and helps neighbors by mowing theirs. Later, in September 2017, while having routine outpatient surgery on her foot, she went into cardiac arrest and had to be revived.  “I was under anesthesia, but then I kept twitching and moving and they didn't understand why. So they was gonna put me under a little bit more. But when I started, my oxygen level started dropping, they said that by the time that they turned me over, my heart rate stopped. So then they had to, how do you call that, resuscitate? …resuscitate me by doing compressions and they said that it took a couple minutes. Of course, I don't remember anything. I was in ICU for two days,” Wendy said of the ordeal.  “And when I woke up on the 7th, (two days later), I did not know where I was at. I was confused. Then later on I got moved to another room in the hospital. They done some tests, all kind of tests, and now I have to go do sleep apnea test and then I got fluid on my heart and didn't know it."  “I wouldn't wish this on nobody, to ever go through what I did. Now I know how people feel when they do their compressions and how it hurts after, hurts worse than having a heart attack,” Wendy explains. “And I was in the emergency room last night. They wanted to keep me for monitoring my heart. I didn't have no one stable enough to watch the kids. Nobody could take care of them, get them up for school."  “Chris, he wasn't feeling good, so I was worried about him of course. So I had to sign myself out. I’m used to mowing grass and getting up and doing everything,” Wendy said. “Now, I just gotta take a step back and kinda just let someone else take over. Like mowing the grass and stuff like that but it's just like I said. I like doing things, I don't like sitting. I like helping. Now that I got my health issues with fluid on my heart. I'm just trying to get through that and make sure I'm okay. I gotta be around for these kids and grandkids.” Ever since, Wendy hasn’t been able to “slow down.” She can’t afford to.  “I didn't get much sleep when she was in the hospital,” Chris said. “I'd sit there all night long and all day and waited for her to wake up. And you know, it was scary. I thought I lost her. We've been together 18 years. That's the love of my life and I don't want to lose her. It's a scary thought and I'd sit there and cry the whole time. I thank God that she's still alive and still here. I pray every day for her. I know she's still going through pain but we'll make it.”