First Post

This blog is going to be for the friends and family of Eric Christopher, Butte County Sheriff's Detective. My husband is currently in the ICU unconcious after a serious cardiac episode on Monday 6/22/09. My inention is to use this blog to update friends and family of his progress, and of our family's continuing support of him while he makes this recovery. The reality of the blog is that it will probably be my thearpist, my outlet, my vent, my sanity, and a bit of a love letter to my husband, while I put this all down to make sense of it in my own head as we make this journey together. There are things that will probably be personal, and while I understand this is a very public way to do this, I hope that it will also serve as a record for him when he wakes up, and that as we make this journey, it will help keep it in perspective for all of us. I have been sending out nightly updates via e-mail but decided this might work better for me. I will be going back and copying my original updates and posting them here for those that missed the beginning of this ordeal. However the first thing I want to do is talk a little about Eric.

Eric and I first met in the laundry room of the dorms here in Chico, 20 years ago this coming September. We dated 8 years before we got married, and were married another 7 before we had kids. We have two wonderful daughters ages 5 and almost 3. They are absolutely the lights of his life. Eric is an amazing father, husband, friend and son. He is absolutely the glue that holds us all together. He loves a challenge, he loves his job and all of the men and women that he works with. I asked him once on a scale of 1-10 how much he liked his job. He thought about it for awhile and smuggly said "9". I asked him what it was that would make it a 10 for him. He smiled and said "If they paid me more, and let me fly heliocoptors", so aside from a boy's fantasy, he loves his job about as much as anyone could. I remember early on in his career, he would tell me how people would sometimes make comments to him about his dedication and wonder what political aspirations he might have in his job. He would laugh, as I am sure the people that know him would laugh to think about that. He doesn't work the way he does to get noticed, to move up in rank, or even to make himself look good. He does it for one reason alone, he thinks it is a game. He says when it stops being fun he won't do it anymore, but it is still the most fun he can have and get paid. I have always admired this about him. There are many times people ask me about how I deal with his energy and dedication level, (and there are many times it drives me crazy, as I am sure it does anyone at work who tries to supervise him), but in a nutshell, it is what makes Eric, Eric. He has always been that way. I know the support his work family has shown to us, will mean the world to Eric when he wakes up. He is so many things to so many people. a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a detective, a fisherman, a diver, a swimmer, a runner, a friend, an athlete, a coworker, officer of the year, victims advocate of the year, a hunter, dedicated, determined, honest, strong, funny, kind, adored, capable, smart, generous, helpful, amazing, talkative, peristant, but above all else he is a good man. Recently when we were walking, I stopped him and told him that he is the best man that I know. It is true, he is.