In this 7 Minute Story, Aaron tells the story about how his future wife Cori captured his heart...
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Story created & performed by: Aaron Calafato
Senior Audio Engineer: Ken Wendt
Additional vocals: Cori Birce
Art: Pete Whitehead
Original Music: thomas j. duke
S3 EPISODE 10: THE HEARTBEAT - powered by Happy Scribe
You're listening to 7 Minute Stories with Aaron Calafato. This is Season 3. If you want to connect with us or grab some merch, visit us at 7minutestories.com, that's the number 7minutestories.com. This episode, The Heartbeat.
I was having a hard time breathing. My eyes are darting around the restaurant because I didn't want to make a scene. I'm looking at people to see if they notice me. Starting to sweat, starting to feel lightheaded. Cori's sitting right across from me and she notices something is off. We were just starting to date at the time. I think it was one of our first dates and I was trying to impress her.
I took her to this restaurant that made incredible empanadas. I was trying to show her that I was cultured. "What's the soup du jour? That's the soup of the day. Mm, that sounds good, I'll have that." I was trying to be like, "Hey, enjoy yourself tonight." I'm trying to make an impression and it's starting to go downhill and I don't know why.
I start trying to catch my breath, but I decide try to do the home remedy thing. I order a ginger ale. "I'll take a ginger ale. Rub some tiger balm on it." But I figure I'll just walk myself down from this situation. But it persists so much so that I have to excuse myself outside. I walk outside of this restaurant, leave Cori back inside and I'm trying to breathe. Every time I try to breathe deeper, it's like I'm getting less air into my lungs.
At this point, alarms are going off in my head and I'm thinking, "Shit, this is a medical emergency. I'm dying." I felt in the moment, literally a sense of doom that I can't even explain. Felt like I was going to pass out right there. I go back inside the restaurant, but I'm still scared to tell Cori about it. I don't want to let her down. I'm trying to make a good impression. I don't want to blow this thing.
She's a special lady. She's a special woman and I'm blowing it. I start hiding it. She notices though. I'm pale, I'm sweating. She's looking at me, she's like, "You okay?" And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm good. I'm great." I order food thinking I can just push through this. "Maybe my blood sugar's low," all this sort of stuff.
It doesn't go away and something happens in a moment where I just look at her and say, "I have to go to the hospital." It was like flight, "I got to go." She's like, "What? Are you okay?" I'm like, "Have to go to the hospital now. Got to go." We just ordered the food. Hadn't eaten it. I don't know what happened. We had to leave.
"Sorry, medical emergency." We run out to the parking lot. I'm like, "Take me to the nearest hospital. Take me to the nearest hospital. I feel like I'm going to die." She's like, "Okay, I'm going to drive." She gets in the car, I get in the car. First thing I do, turn on classical music. Just thought it would help.
Picture this date, ladies. I'm sitting there sweating in the passenger seat, head against the window, humming to classical music, trying not to die. Cori's scrambling with the GPS trying to find the nearest hospital. We weren't familiar with the neighborhood. I'm just like, "Drive, drive. Hurry." She's like, "I'm going."
I didn't know at the time that I was having a panic attack. I didn't know it had a name. I didn't know that the source had a name, anxiety. It was something I had always dealt with my whole life. I just thought it was something that happened to me from time to time. I noticed as I got older, they got worse, the panic attacks, because more responsibility, more kids, more responsibility as an adult. All that kind of stuff builds up. I noticed it got worse and worse as I got older and I just dealt with it. Didn't say anything about it, didn't tell anybody about it.
There would be times in the past where I would go to the hospital, but this one was really bad and I thought, "This could be it. I'm literally going to die this evening because it feels that way. It's not joking around." You feel when you're in the midst of a panic attack, like you are going to die.
We get to the hospital, I'm laying in the bed. They're trying to hold me down. I'm like, "Help me, help me." Cori's like, "Calm down." I'm like, "Okay." She's like, "Breathe with me," so I'm breathing with her. They give me oxygen. They do all the tests. The doctor comes in and says, "Hey, I'm going to give you some aspirin just in case. "Don't worry, doc. I'm way ahead of you. Took two in the car on the way here." He's like, "You're way ahead. This isn't your first rodeo."
They do all the scans. I said, "Scan my lungs." I thought there was something wrong. "There's something wrong with my lungs. Scan my lungs." They scan everything. Test results come back healthy as a horse. Couldn't be healthier. They said, "Sir, you're not only healthy, you couldn't be healthier physically. Mentally, you should probably talk to somebody."
That drive home with Cori, I was so embarrassed, so ashamed. I was almost in tears. She was like, "It's okay. You're going to be okay. We're going to get through this together." She put her hand on my hand. We went home. It was the first time she encouraged me, "Hey, you should probably talk to somebody." She did it gently. So started talking to my doctor, got in touch with the therapist.
Been in therapy to this day. It's helped me soften in these experiences, my anxiety. But it started with that moment and that compassion that she gave me. But I'm still neurotic. Even with that slight happy ending, after that particular experience, I needed to check the box because I thought, "Yeah, they did all the scans, but did they do all of them really?" My doctor was like, "I'm going to send you to a cardiologist to give you one final scan to show you everything's good to go."
Cori's like, "Get the scan." She's like, "Go ahead if that makes you feel better." I go to this cardiologist, I'm doing these tests on a treadmill. Median age there, 92 years old, then there's me. At the time, I'm in my mid 30s. Guys are looking at me like, "Bro, what are you doing?" I jog on the treadmill. Cori goes with me, walks with me and is with me through the whole process.
After I run on the treadmill, the nurse says, "Got to lay down on the bed. I'm going to take all types of scans of your heart." She puts all these sticky things all over my chest and it makes me nervous. She goes, "Your heart rate's going up." I was like, "Oh, no. There is something wrong." She goes, "No, you're just nervous."
Cori from sitting in the corner of the room gets up, walks over to me, puts her hand in my hand. Nurse says, "Oh my God!" She said, "Your heart rate dropped down to normal." She lowered your heart rate. I looked over at her and I knew before then, but it was in that moment that I knew I was going to ask her to marry me because anybody that can change your heart rate like that deserves the world.
So I did. I asked her to marry me and we've been engaged for a very long time. But I'm excited to say that we're officially getting married this April. It's been a long time coming. Cori, you had my heart before then, but especially during that moment and you've had it ever since. I love you.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato. Our senior audio engineer is Ken Wendt. Our resident artist is Pete Whitehead. Original music by TJ Duke. If you or your company needs help starting a podcast, Aaron and Ken's company, Valleyview, does just that. Reach out to them at valleyview.fm. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. I'm Cori Birce. Make sure to tune in next week for another story.
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