The Muse Within Me

By Dallas A. Davis

These are some of my thoughts that yearn to be in print. Over the years I never gave much credence to or had the urge to write. After my heart attack and death I was in a very different state of mind. Everything that my mind conjured up I put to pen and paper. Depending on what you like to read you just might find some of it here. Please enjoy reading my Muses as I have enjoyed putting them to paper.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514452660

Dallas A. Davis

About the Author: I come from a humble background. My father was Irish and my mother was German. It was an odd mixture that lasted only 13 years. Our mother raised 3 children single-handed. She worked as a secretary for 45 years for the George A. Hormel Co., now known as Hormel Foods. My sister, brother and I went to Catholic School and had a good education. I am the baby in the family. My brother, Don, was a T.V. news Anchor and weather man. When he retired he opened a Game Store and called himself “The Game Warden”; my sister, Diana, was a model in New York City, and she married and had five children and about 9 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren; my half sister, Lou Ann, lives in Blaine, Minnesota, and she has three children and five grandchildren. I married, Spero K. Davis in 1957, and we have four beautiful children and 6 beautiful grandchildren. In 1995, at the young age of 63, I had a heart attack and I died. I was revived by the Paramedics after about 12 minutes into my death and I came out of it with all my faculties. God bless and keep Paramedics safe everywhere. I believe I am still here for a reason, so I started writing. I write whatever pops into my head. I started with my Memoirs and onto this Novel. I have written, so far, 18 poems that just seem to flow out of my psyche, which I never thought I could do. I then wrote a short story, “Am I Dreaming”, about a friend of Spero’s who was in a plane crash. I have changed everyone’s name and made it fiction. I have also written two children’s stories, “Little Monty Visits Grandpa’s Farm” and “Little Monty Makes a New Friend”. I self-published the first one. The publisher is now out of business and I can’t get any more copies. I also wrote an Essay on my “Theory of Religion” (The Meaning of Life). I’m still working on that one. Now I’m alone. My sweet, loving husband, Spero, is in a nursing home in Perry. He has Alzheimer’s. It is so sad to see this intelligent man waist away to this state of nothingness. I hope I’m around for many more years to get everything down on paper that my psyche needs to dispense.

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Copyright © 2016 by Dallas Davis.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016901083

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5144-5268-4

        Softcover   978-1-5144-5267-7

        eBook       978-1-5144-5266-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 01/29/2016

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CONTENTS

MIRACLE IN LAS VEGAS

ALZHEIMER’S

CHRISTMAS HOPES AND DREAMS

CHRISTMAS COMES ONCE A YEAR

FROM THE HEART

I NEVER GOT TO DANCE WITH PAPA

I WEEP

YOU ARE MY ONE TRUE LOVE

I LOVE MY COUNTRY

IN MY DASH

ODE TO RONALD REAGAN

ONE, TWO, THREE

WE ARE SEVEN

A LITTLE SONG LIFE

A BOYS SONG

SCENTS OF THE SEASONS

SNOW DAYS

SOMETIMES

SPRING HAS SPRUNG

I REMEMBER THAT OLD HOUSE"

THANK YOU

WILL THEY REMEMBER?

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN AN ANGEL

AM I DREAMING?

FEED THE HUNGRY

JUDGE YE NOT

NATURE IS FREE

SENSES OF AUTUMN

AN ANGEL’S TOUCH

AMNESIA

THEORY ON RELIGION

(The Meaning of Life)

FIRST INSTALLMENT OF THE SPERO K. DAVIS CHRONICLE

MIRACLE IN LAS VEGAS

By Dallas A. Davis

October 27, 1999

For the longest time, years even, I found it hard to talk about my heart attack; so I decided to write it all down. In fact it took me several years before I could even go back to Las Vegas. The fact that I was dead and brought back to life was very devastating. This is my story of what happened, not as I remember it, but as my family told me the details. I have no memory of what happened to me in Las Vegas. There are about 3 weeks of my life that have been blocked from my memory forever.

Before we went to Las Vegas I drove to Austin, MN to pick up my sister, Diana. I went up a week early because my friends Ed and Jo Zimmerman, from California, were going to be in Austin visiting relatives. We had lunch together and we had a nice visit. Later that week a Big Band concert was in Austin and Diana, Aunt Jeannette and I went to the concert. I bought a tape of the music. We played it all the way back to Des Moines.

(My sister, Diana, tells me.) We got back to Des Moines a Sunday, August 13, which was Spero’s birthday. We took him to Prairie Meadows for a little gambling as his birthday present. I hit a jack pot and won $800.00. While in Austin I also bought a nice pair of walking boots.

#

It was a warm day in August when my sisters, Diana and Lou Ann and I went to Las Vegas, NV. The date was August 16, 1995, on a Wednesday. My older sister, Diana, had a complimentary suite from the Treasure Island Hotel, which she shared with us.

We arose Friday morning, the 18th, and while getting ready to have another big day at the slots, I started to complain about not feeling very well. There was pain in my neck and glands. My baby sister, Lou Ann, called the front desk to see if they had an in-house doctor…they did not, but they suggested that we go to the clinic, which was just a few blocks from the hotel.

We decided not to go to the clinic. (This was a good decision.) At that point I felt a little dizzy so I sat in the chair. I then complained about a pain in my left arm. I said to my sisters, That’s heart, isn’t it?

At that comment, I lost consciousness. Lou Ann called emergency and my sisters laid me on the floor. (Diana told me, much later, that when they picked me up to put me on the floor, my body was stiff. I have learned that this is called Cardio Rigor Mortis.) Lou Ann performed CPR on me until the emergency crew from the hotel arrived which was just a few minutes. The paramedics arrived a short time later. They worked on me for more than 10 minutes before they finally got my heart pumping again. So, basically, I was dead for about 12 to 15 minutes. Once the paramedics got my heart started they rushed me to Sunrise Hospital where I lay in a coma for 30 hours. Someone told me that my heart stopped again while I was in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Lou Ann had the dreadful task of calling my husband, Spero, to tell him what happened; because, at that point, the prognosis did not look good. Spero thought for sure she was calling because I had run out of money and needed more.

His jovial mood changed very quickly when she gave him the news that I had a heart attack, and was in the hospital. My husband and four children flew to Las Vegas on the first flights they could get, not knowing what to expect. Two of our sons, Chip and Jon, lived in Des Moines. Our third son, George, lived in Chicago, and our daughter, Adrienne, lived in Sacramento, California. I can only imagine the frantic phone calls that took place that day.

Spero, Chip and Jon arrived in Vegas at 1:00 a.m. Saturday. Their first stop was at the hotel to meet with Lou Ann and Diana. Adrienne got in Friday evening, although no one knew she had arrived. She said she couldn’t find anyone, so she got a key to the room and went up and took a nap. She had a very long day.

#

Adrienne received the call from her dad while she was at work. She just dropped everything and called the Airport and made a reservation for their first flight to Las Vegas. George arrived some time Saturday.

The doctors were concerned about the fact that I was dead for such a long time. They told my sisters that if I did pull through, I might not know anyone, or worse, I could possibly end up a vegetable.

#

When my family came to see me at the hospital, I was hooked up to several machines and had tubes sticking