24 Hours of Tears and Laughter

It started with my blood pressure check with Dr. Blechl.  My blood pressure was within normal limits but my heart rate was still fast.  The cardiologist had given me an all clear and no follow-up appointments.   Dr. Blechl said that there must be something causing the rapid heart rate and wanted to get advice from his colleagues about getting an MRI or a CT scan of my adrenal glands.  I told him I really didn't want to see any more doctors but we left it that he would be in touch with me.  I have not heard from him.  I really don't want to hear from him.  But if there is something wrong, I should know.  And from the little reading I have done, this could be a cause of my frequent insomnia.

Laura and her family arrived at a little before 5 pm.  They flew into Indy and will be spending a few days with Michael's family there.  Once they arrived, there was no time to think about anything but them!  The kids explored our basement toys--especially Jim's train set and my floor piano.



We had an amazingly civil family dinner around the dining room table with eight of us.   Jim said a prayer and then little A burst into "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will to men."  What a lovely spontaneous prayer.  And then we went all out with our third prayer and said the usual "God is great. God is good..." I took one taste of the quiche I fixed for the grown-ups and realized I'd forgotten to put in the Swiss cheese.  I really missed it.  Others were good and ate up--even taking seconds.

Jim and I left briefly to attend the visitation for Gary Knoppers, a colleague at Notre Dame.  I gasped when I saw Laura, his wife, standing next to the coffin.   I wanted to remember seeing Gary at Martin's and chatting there a few weeks earlier.  But the casket was closed and mine will be too someday.  I made Jim promise.  We hugged Laura and were able to meet and express our sympathy to his grown children too.

Once home again I sang many songs to A and R in their beds and rejoiced to hear A calm down to the steady breathing of sleep.  I challenged J to a game of Scrabble and we battled for quite a while until Laura called time at 10 pm and J beat me by two points.  The kids all slept very well in unfamiliar places.

Jim made pancakes and more pancakes and the few leftovers were carried out the door in the kids' hands for the long ride back to Indy.

As soon as they left,  Jim and I went to Gary's  Requiem Eucharist at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.  It was a formal service of liturgy, a homily, and communion.  When the casket was escorted out followed by Laura and her son and daughter, the finality of it all was brought home.  I left with tears in my eyes.

We're back to our quiet life for a week now until we leave for St. Pete Beach.  Today is so cold and blustery that the relative warmth and sun of Florida sounds pretty good.