Family memories!

A while back I posted a few pictures of Gord from years ago, and I love to go back and look at them every now and then. Carol-Ann will be next, but until I have that ready to post, here is one of my favorite pictures of her and Kinza taken about 10 years ago. I love the way Kinza's little hands are clasped, and she looks a little dewy around the eyes, as though her mom has been comforting her after tears!

A visit with Cecil and Jean

This afternoon Barry, Gord, and I drove down to see Cecil. (Once again, I forgot my camera, or I could post a few pictures. I think I need to make a big sign: Remember the camera! and post it on the door where I will see it as I leave the house!) Cecil lives in a southern suburb of Denver, and we are on the north side. It takes about an hour and a half round trip.

Cecil is under strict orders from the doctors to do absolutely nothing for 2 weeks. He was relaxing in his bedroom watching football, and when we arrived, he came out to the recliner. He looks so good! He and Jean believe it is a miracle, and I agree. He was on epidural pain meds for the first 3 days, but has been off that now for 2 days. While we were there, Jean brought him a pill. No words were exchanged, but I guess when you have been married 60+ years, you can tell when your husband needs a pain pill even when others don't realize it! This was about 3:30 p.m., and he said he hadn't needed one since about 10:00 p.m. yesterday, more than 12 hours, and that is really wonderful.

Cecil regaled us with stories like only he can. There is never a dull moment when we are with him. His birthday will be on January 20, and he will still not be free to leave home, so when we get a bit closer to that date, we will see how he is feeling and maybe take a meal over to help him celebrate or wait a bit longer until the doctor says he is free to go out. He is already hoping that the doctor will let him go to our next prison service, the first Sunday of February (Super Bowl Sunday, I do believe!) Just as I thought... There is no grass growing under his feet!

Update on Cecil

I thought you might want to know how Cecil is doing. He had his surgery on Monday. He called me this afternoon to say he was home safely, and he said that they (meaning he and his wife) nearly had a nervous breakdown just getting home. I laughed and asked, "Why, Cecil? Were you driving?" He said, "No!" Then we really laughed. I told him, "Cecil, I know you so well! I knew without you telling me that you were nervous because you weren't driving!!" He just hates it when Jean drives, even though she is a very good driver!

I'm so thankful that our prayers have been answered and Cecil is doing so well. The doctor told him today that they see no need for chemotherapy because they have not found cancer in his lymph nodes or anywhere else. I am pretty sure we can't do without him, and, at least for now, God has decided Cecil still has work to do! If I know Cecil, there will be no grass growing under his feet, and we will have to scurry to keep up with him!



Here is Cecil with Barry and me at our 25th anniversary celebration, telling a funny story about us, I'm sure!

A dear friend

I have just revisited my old blog and was shocked to find that it has been almost 3 years since my last post! Where has all that time gone? It's been so long that I had forgotten some of the things I wrote so long ago, and I have had fun re-reading it all!

Actually, a few months ago Carol-Ann and I started a joint weight-loss blog, and I have been posting there quite often, but sometimes I feel like writing about things that are so off topic that I know they would be distracting from the purpose of that blog, so I just thought tonight that I would click over here and post again.

We have a very dear friend, Cecil Moe, who is having surgery first thing in the morning. He is 83 and was diagnosed several months ago with colon cancer. Since then, he has been trying some alternative methods of treating this because of his grave concerns about having surgery -- his age, the complications presented by his COPD and sleep apnea, and the alarming number of patients picking up staph and other infections in hospitals. However, he had some hemorrhaging again this past week, and so he has decided to proceed with the surgery tomorrow.

Such a mixture of emotions...hope that the doctors will be able to remove all the cancer, hope that maybe the Lord has already touched and healed him through the prayers in his behalf, fear that the cancer will have spread and become "inoperable," joy because we know he is trusting in Jesus, selfishness in wanting to keep him with us, fear that the operating table will be his threshold to heaven, gladness because of how wonderful that would be for him, sadness because of the terrible loss that would be to us left behind...