At last I read the rest of the saga. In addition to this being an amazing write-up of a life-altering event in your family, it is also a really incredible macro/micro comparison of dramatic singular events that change lives. If this was fiction, you could have used it as your Write Club metaphor story. It really reminds me of that New Yorker story @jordan.lesich shared, comparing the giant meteor that destroyed most life on earth to a singular life-altering event that occurs in a family.