Good News

Feb 19th, 2009

I had a nightmare last night, about planes going into tailspins, loosing engine power and doing nose-dives from the sky.

I begged out of an afternoon toting our visiting group to the mountain top. My stomach is too volcanic to handle a windy trip up the mountain in a van, and I don't want to venture out of cell-phone reach. Patrick has been completely lovely and supportive and actually encouraged me to head home after lunch. Didn't have electricity for most of the afternoon (our generator is getting fixed), so forced to read while I waited for the phone to ring, or the internet to spring to life.

This evening I called just in time to hear Grandma’s voice before she was carted off to surgery. She sounded more clear than before, and in her typical style seemed to be working to comfort me when I had called to do the same for her. The physical relief in being able to tell her that I loved her and knowing she heard was welcome.

Mom called a few hours later to report she made it through the surgery well. She was a trooper and had no complications.

And now the hard part begins. She’ll have to rehab for the next weeks to come. I’m grateful for her fighting spirit, for her zest, for her sparkle and I pray she has enough stubborn will left to pull her through. I wish I could be reprieve to my family who sounds so tired from the emotional and physical roller-coaster they’ve been on over the last few days.

In a weeks time, our family has celebrated the birth of Caden and despaired in Grandma’s fall and subsequent suffering. And I’m not much more help that what a phone call can offer, words of encouragement can bring, prayers can give and love sent intensely from a far. For this hands-on girl, it makes the distance feel vast. Yet it forces me to put faith into action, and trust to work.