Ricky Skaggs.Photo: Shannon Finney/Getty Images
Ricky Skaggsknew something was wrong. For more than six months, the country music and bluegrass legend found himself getting winded easily. He noticed a tightness in his chest that was never there before. And then, there was the shortness of breath that would hit him when he least expected it.
Maybe it was stress.
Maybe it was acid reflux.
Or maybe, it was something far more serious.
But, much like the rest of us, theCountry Music Hall of Famerdidn’t have much time to dwell on these troubling symptoms. He had much on his plate in 2020. After spending a good portion of January and February out doing shows, Skaggs and his crew found themselves off the road and without a paycheck due to various COVID-19 lockdowns starting in March. At home, Skaggs and his wife Sharon White had been busy caring for her elderly father Buck White for the past three years. And before the crazy year of 2020 was through, their brand-new grandson would be born.
Ricky Skaggs.Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Country Music Hall Of Fame
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Indeed, while his underlying symptoms were troubling enough, Skaggs says that in the first half of 2020, there were a number of signs directing him to put his health first. From the Life Line Screening letters he kept finding in his mailbox to the news ofAmy Grant’s surgeryback in June toaddress a congenital heart conditioncalled partial anomalous pulmonary venous return (PAPVR) to the timing of his sister-in-law Cheryl White Jones' mini-stroke on the very same day of his six-month checkup, Skaggs says he continued to feel God tugging on his heart to do something about how he was feeling.
“God gives us grace, but we all have a tendency to kick in the boundaries of that grace,” Skaggs explains. “Sometimes, we are like a bull running through the fence of grace. But then, there comes a time when He has to come after us. I knew that I couldn’t stand in the shadows of my heart situation anymore. I had been fearful of a heart attack or getting a stent put in all of this time, but now, I was in a corner. I had to address it.”
In the hours after the life-altering surgery on June 15, Skaggs met with his heart surgeon Dr. Sreekumar “Kumar” Subramanian, who relayed an earth-shattering story from the operating room.
“Don’t put off tomorrow what you can do today,” Skaggs tells PEOPLE. “That surgery gave me a brand-new heart. Not only a real heart, but a spiritual heart that has now been cleaned out, so I can hear Him better than ever before.”
source: people.com
