Christmas came and went and although they tried to make it a Christmas none of them would forget spirits were down in the Earnhardt household. It was a few days past Christmas, Mandy woke late one night to find Dale’s side of the bed empty. The bathroom light was off and there was no noise coming from upstairs, she grabbed a robe and headed down the hall.
Everyone’s lights were still off upstairs so she headed down and noticed the light to Dale’s office on. She softly knocked on the cracked door. "Dale?"
"Yeah babe…"
She pushed the door open to find him at his desk buried in paperwork, medical papers, and photos. "Sweety, it’s 4am, what are you doing?" She walked to the side of the desk and ran her fingers through his hair.
He kept flipping through the medical book never looking up. "Did you know that 3000 children a year will be diagnosed with ALL?"
"Dale."
"A child in remission for 10 years is considered cured."
"Dale." She whispered again.
"Or that 80% of all cases are actually cured? She doesn‘t have to die."
Mandy ran her fingers through his hair as tears welled up behind her eyes. Everything was starting to hit him and sink in. "Dale."
Dale finally looked up from the books and Mandy felt a chill run down her spine from what stared back at her. There was a distance in his eyes that she had never seen. "I’m retiring."
Mandy looked at him in shock. "Baby, it’s late, you’re tired and we’re all stressed. Let’s get some sleep and we will talk about this in the morning."
Dale took a deep breath and took Mandy’s hand. "Amanda, come here." He pulled her down onto his lap. "I have been thinking about this for over a month now, since the day they did the spinal tap and I could hear her screaming for me and I couldn’t get to her. Face it, we can afford the best care fmoney can buy and that’s in Memphis, we’re leaving in a few days. Her treatment will last for months if not years. I’m not sending my baby off to…" He paused catching his breath and wiping at the tears. "I won’t let my family get split up. She needs us, all of us that’s the only way we are going to get through this, you told me that."
"What about school?"
"We’ll get a tutor and we can home school them. Garrett can join a hockey league through a camp or gym, I’ve already found two highly recommended ones. We can get DanI Lee a violin coach to replace band. I know we said we wanted a normal life for them but I think normal was thrown out the window when my baby was diagnosed with leukemia. We need to be a family, together, I don’t care where that is but we have to stay together."
She knew he was right but she was worried. "Can you honestly say you will be ok never getting in that car again? You‘re only 36 you have so many years of racing left."
"I’m more ok with that than I am letting my baby go through this with out me, than splitting up my family. Along time ago, yes, that car was all that mattered but I have all of you now and none of this," he picked up a copy of his contract with Bud and DEI. "matters without you guys."
She picked up a photo of Dale and his father from the Winston. "What about him?"
Dale looked at the photo. "I would like to think that he’d understand and that maybe he’d do the same." The skeptical look on his face told her he didn’t actually believe that. "Racing was all he ever knew or wanted, his family was second and I think he started realizing what he had missed but it was too late, he ran out of time. I just want to be the daddy he didn’t have time to be. I love him dearly but I want to be better than he was."
Mandy’s tears joined his. "Baby, you already are. I love you so much and I will always stand beside you no matter what. You and the kids are my life and as long as we have each other I know we’ll be ok." She wrapped her arms around him knowing this had been one of the hardest but easiest decisions he had ever made or probably ever would.
They sat there for the longest time holding each other and crying over not just their present situation or the not so certain future but for the life they had known for so long and how quickly it was all fading away.
Dale flew out the next day to Memphis, he had decided to buy a small house not to far from the hospital, Belle wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital all the time and it would be a home for all of them to go to. Keith, the kids, Mandy, Brenda, and Winston and the three cats would all follow a few days later. They would stay in Memphis until the first week of February, then they would be able to go back to Mooresville for a couple months before returning.
By the time the rest of the family had made it to Memphis Dale had hired a tutor to help the kids with their studies, had the house decorated and flown to St Louis to Budweiser headquarters. To say the powers that be at Bud were shocked was an understatement, but as they say, all good things must come to an end.
"I can’t believe the thought of someone else filling that car hasn’t crossed your minds before now?" Dale said looking from Jade to August to Michelle, the head of the Bud marketing program. "I’m not exactly the poster boy for partying and bachelorhood anymore."
"Dale, honestly, no you aren’t but you have been good to us and for us and we aren’t about to turn our backs on you or your family now. I was so sorry to hear about your wife‘s accident to only turn around and hear about Isabella." Michelle said.
"Thank you, I appreciate that but let’s face it, there are younger, not so tied down guys out there who would be better off in that Budweiser Chevy. I wanted to talk to you about my situation first."
"Teresa doesn’t know about this does she?" Jade asked knowing Dale all to well.
"No, you guys have done so much for me, daddy, DEI, your loyalty hasn’t gone unnoticed. It’s been a long great trip with you guys and although I am retiring, I’m not ready to leave this organization all together." Dale thought back to how excited he and his daddy were 11 years ago when they signed the first Bud contract. "I think I have a proposition that will benefit not only DEI but Budweiser as well."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A routine had been found that although no one was happy with it, it was what their lives had become. Belles treatments were scheduled so that she spent one week out of the month in the hospital. Her chemo was set up one week on one week off with the third always being the strongest. That was the week she spent at the hospital, usually in Monday through Thursday so she was home by the weekend. It was hard on everyone but Dale and Mandy thought they were adjusting well.
"NO!"
"Garrett you have to eat." Keith said as he pushed the plate of pancakes back in front of him. They had refused dinner last night so Keith and Brenda sent them to bed without but they figured they would eat breakfast. Keith turned as he heard a crash. "You ok?" He asked Taylor who had just been hit in the shoulder from the plate Hailey threw at her.
"Yes, it barely hit me."
"That’s it, this is ridiculous." Brenda said picking up the phone.
"What? You have to be kidding me?" Mandy said into her cell trying to not wake Belle. Dale looked up at the shock in Mandy’s voice. "Ok, we’ll see you soon."
"What’s up?"
"Your mom and Keith are bringing the kids up."
"But I thought we decided…"
"I know but they refused to eat last night and this morning, they won’t take a bath or get dressed unless they get to see us and Belle. It appears our kids are on strike. Hailey threw her plate at Tay."
"Jesus."
"I know we were trying to protect them from all this but they know she’s really sick, they feel it, I think we take for granted the power and understanding that is between the four of them. They feel helpless." She sat next to Belle’s bed and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "We have done what we swore we wouldn’t do. Dale don’t you see we split our family up anyway. Sure we are all in the same city but we might as well not be. We haven’t seen our kids in 3 days." She turned to Dale. "They need to feel more apart of this, it will help Belle too, I know she misses them."
She was right he knew that. "It’s going to hurt them to see her like this. I just wanted to protect them from that."
"I know but we’re hurting them anyway." Belle started tossing and turning.
"Shh, baby it’s ok." Dale placed a cool wash cloth on her forehead. During this stronger treatment her fever would spike, she couldn’t eat very much, she would throw up at least twice an hour, and she was very dehydrated. By the third day her tiny body was so exhausted from fighting that she would literally pass out for hours at a time. The doctors guaranteed Dale and Mandy that this was what should happen, no matter how hard it was to watch they would need to get use to it because it was helping their daughter.
That’s where they were this week, day 3. There was a soft knock on the door and Brenda poked her head in. "We come in?"
Mandy smiled weakly. "Yeah." She picked up DanI Lee. "Hey baby, how are you?" She kissed the other kids as Hailey ran to Dale and Taylor and Garrett walked in and stood between their parents. Brenda and Keith let themselves out knowing they needed some time alone as a family.
They stood in silence for a few moments before Hailey buried her head in Dale’s neck crying. "It’s ok. I know this looks scary, maybe if you understood more it would help. Anyone have any questions?"
They stared at Belle sleeping for another few minutes before Garrett looked up at his dad. "What’s that?" He pointed to her hand.
"That’s an IV. There is a needle in her hand and then see the tubes that go up here. It let’s her get medicine, and liquids to help make her stronger."
"She can’t eat very much so it’s like a food."
"She can’t eat?" Taylor asked.
"She can but her throat is sore and she can’t keep it down so she doesn’t like to. She does get a grilled cheese sandwich every night but that’s about it."
The kids got silent again as Belle started to wake up. "Daddy?"
"I’m right here baby. Everyone is."
She slowly opened her eyes. "Hi." She said as she stared at her brother and sisters. Mandy and Dale smiled at her half attempt to smile and knew they had done the right thing.
############
February was slow coming and although the family had adjusted well to the new house and city they were more than happy to get back Mooresville. The chemo had been rough on Belle, she was always sick and tired and just not herself but the quickly approaching Daytona 500 put a spark back in her step, she hadn’t been to a race since the summer and was excited to get back to the track, they all were. They hadn’t told the kids of Dale’s plans yet but knew they had to pretty quickly, there would be no hiding it once it went public.
"You’re what?" Taylor asked not sure she heard correctly.
"You aren’t going to race anymore?" Belle teared up, this being worse news than her own health.
"Listen guys, I’m not going to race anymore which means I can be home with all of you a lot more but it doesn’t mean we are getting out of racing. We will still be apart of DEI and we have Chance 2, we will be at the track all the time still as long as we aren’t in Memphis." He pulled a very distraught Belle onto his lap. "This also means I won’t have as many sponsor meetings and I will have more time to help teach you how to drive."
Belle wasn’t so sure about all this but as long as she still got to go to the track she would wait it out and see what happened. The kids took the news fairly well, they were excited to know Dale would be around a lot more and Mandy had to admit never seeing another wreck that Dale was involved in sounded ok to her. A few days later Dale loaded the family into the van and they headed south, next stop…Daytona.