Atlanta Zoo

Since we were just in Atlanta and I haven't been in Atlanta in April since 1990, I was thinking back to that trip.

Twenty-one years ago, my mom's whole side of the family decided to meet in Atlanta for a small reunion.  During our trip, everyone decided to go to the Atlanta Zoo.  This thrilled my five year old self because I loved animals and there wasn't a good zoo near where we lived.

Early one morning, we all set out for the zoo to enjoy a good day of family, outdoor air and animals.  Everything was going well when we stopped at the lion enclosure.  My grandmother, who was 57 at the time, seemed out of breath and decided to sit.  Someone asked her if she was ok and she responded that she was "just looking at the lions".  No one thought much of it at the time and we continued on with our day.

After we all had eaten lunch together, some of the adults wanted to go to the Cyclorama, which at 5, I didn't care about seeing. Therefore we split up- I stayed with my parents and my aunt, my grandmother went with two of my uncles and one of my other aunts.  Towards the late afternoon, when we were getting ready to leave and meet the other adults out near the cars, those of us that stayed at the zoo were in the gift shop.

My uncle ran into the gift shop saying that there was something wrong with my grandmother and that we needed to hurry up and come meet up with her.  With that, we set down our purchases and we all booked it across the zoo.  My mom was pregnant at the time and even she ran.

When we got to the Cyclorama, my mom who was a nurse, quickly determined my grandmother was having a heart attack.  We asked an employee for a wheelchair and for a phone to call 911.  The employee declined both and time was wasting, so my uncle ran to get a car. Somehow, perhaps through being carried, my grandmother made it to the front of the building where my uncle picked her up and took her to the hospital.

We later found out that earlier in the day, someone else had suffered a heart attack and ended up dying on the way to the hospital since there was no ambulance.  Luckily, my grandmother didn't have the same fate and after spending several days in the hospital, she was released to go home.