Well it has been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of weeks. Susie joined the women in her family for the Annual Callahan Girls Weekend. She skipped the Friday night party and drove up Saturday with Debbie Treece, who we had met a few weekends ago with her husband (Susie’s cousin) Leslie Callahan). I’m sure the two of them had some fun conversations about life in general (and family in specific). The good news is Susie was feeling well and her counts were much closer to normal than they had been in months (many months). So much so, that we made arrangements for her sister (Ann Sharp) to stay the week and for me to travel for work.
Well upon Susie’s return from the Callahan Girls Weekend, I learned my Uncle Joey had passed away. This is my father’s younger brother. My Uncle Ed had passed away about a month ago. I had missed Ed’s funeral, as the stars did not align, but I felt that the stars were close to alignment this time. Ann scheduled her return flight for DC to Saturday and I adjusted my return from Las Vegas to go through Boston. So, I got to see extended family on Friday, the 2nd of May, and share in the love of my two uncles. An added bonus is I also stayed at my sister’s place, played with my niece, checked out her husband’s garden/ home improvements (very very cool Bernie) and take a tour of Manchester-by-the-Sea. What a beautiful place and well worth a return visit (with a kayak or two when the water warms up). My return could have been timed any better. When I exited my plane in Austin, my sister-in-law (Ann) was at the gate. So we had a bit of time to recap the week and smile with each other (Thank you Ann!).
Susie seemed to be doing better. She was feeling quite confident and was spreading her wings and doing more. So much so, that I was stepping back a bit. Whether it was over confidence or something else, we hit a bump on Wednesday. I heard a thud outside. I rushed outside to see what it was, and found Susie face down at the bottom of our back porch stairs. We do not know if she had a seizure or she just lost her balance, but she obviously tumbled through the screen door and down the stairs onto our very unforgiving limestone patio. She was semi-conscious and her words were not quite right. She could say words, but they were not necessarily the correct ones. What she could clearly convey is that she did not want to go to the hospital, so we called the after hours line. In short, Susie’s words and thinking returned to near normal in about an hour. So, she got out of the incident a few bruises, some scratches and a bit of a swollen left eye.
After the fall, I have been on high alert and maybe a bit too overprotective. My behavior has been a bit frustrating at times for Susie. The good news is she had significantly healed by Mother’s Day, which was a grand day. I made breakfast for her and her mom. We had experimented with making French Toast with Challah from Central Market and Whole Foods. I liked the Whole Foods taste better, it was less sweet and the crust was actually a crust. Susie liked Central Markets because it was sweeter and the crust was softer, go figure opposites attract. We ended the day with a visit to our friends Margo and Reed’s house to catch the tail end of their Mother’s Day gathering. It was nice to see a few Shaws and Caylors, along with the Mahaffeys.
I hope all of our friends and family had a nice Mother’s Day. I made my mom laugh with correcting my Hebrew (Yom Ha-Em Sameach Ima!).
