FATE, Texas — At Christmastime, most families leave cookies for Santa, but one family in Fate says the big guy is actually a fan of another sweet treat.
“Oh, kolaches,” said Emily Cook. “He’s a European Santa for sure.”
Cook and her siblings Sarah, Katie and Ivan sell kolaches at their store, Four Czechs Bakery in Fate, and every December, Santa stops by.
The entire month, their dad, Ed Prochaska, gets into costume, something customers look forward to every year.
“Oh yeah, they love seeing Santa,” said Ed’s wife, Stella Prochaska. “He is the main attraction.”
It’s something Ed looked forward to, too, but no one imagined that last Christmas might be his last Christmas.
“It was the night before my birthday and I remember thinking, ‘you know, Lord am I going to lose him on my birthday,” Stella said. “I knew at that point it was a possibility.”
About a week before Christmas, Ed had just gotten home after being Santa for the day when he felt a severe pain in his back. He tried to tough it out, but it got worse.
He went to Texas Health Hospital Rockwall where doctors gave him medication to deal with the pain. However, before sending him home they ran one more test.
“That one decision that the doctor made to do that one more test, it was a life and death decision,” Stella said.
Doctors discovered an aortic dissection, a tear in Ed’s aorta. It often disguises itself as back or kidney pain.
“If you have no intervention you have about a 50 percent seven-day mortality,” said cardiothoracic surgeon Justin Collier.
It was such a serious condition that Ed was immediately flown to Texas Health Presbyterian in Dallas for emergency surgery where doctors delivered a Christmas miracle.
Because they acted so quickly, doctors were able to save Ed’s life.
Ed says he’s looking forward to getting back out as Santa but says this year he’ll appreciate it more than ever.
“When you find yourself on death’s door and you’re allowed to come back, it’s got to change you,” Ed said. “There were just scores of people that suspended their lives for a while in order to intercede for me and the value of that it’s immense.”
“Every single thing, when you look back after it’s all over and you just see God’s hand in it, it was a miracle,” Cook said.
“Every chance we get to spend and hang out with him is just that much more precious because it almost got taken away,” Sarah Prochaska said.
It’s given Ed more time with those he loves.
And a lot more kolaches.
“I eat as many as I can, but the kids are running a business,” Ed said. “I don’t want to eat up all their profits.”
“Santa gets everything for free,” Sarah laughed.
“As many, unlimited kolaches as he wants,” Cook added.