Rain and Nora at Boyd Creek
The front lawn needs
mowing  again. She is
resting. I will get to it.

We do not look forward to Wednesday because the next day is Thursday, chemo day. Taxol day. Understand, everyone at the Lewis Center is wonderful, caring. What a hell of a job. Think about it.

Back in the dawn of time, when I was at the University of Wisconsin, I had the pleasure of co-authoring and co-directing a stage and television production called, “A Gentle Smoke Signal,” for stage and television (the open scene was an atomic bomb test at Marshall Islands). Except for my co-author and I, the rest of the cast was Native American (Winnebago and Menominee). Among other great many things, I learned that an old custom was that if you had a bad day, say Thursday, one year, it was acceptable to discard it the next year and replace it with another day, like Friday. Nora and I now have two Fridays a week. (My personal week consists mostly of Wednesdays and is 23 days long.)

Nora does look forward to visits with Regina, who visits all the chemo patients every Thursday, offering cookies and sweets. A survivor, someone who sat in one of the overstuffed, comfortable chairs Nora sits in.

Nora is there Thursdays. Regina comes Thursdays. They talk, laugh. I have little faith in coincidence. I have great faith in Regina and my wife. How did that happen?

Nora may need another blood infusion. Taxol really takes its toll.

The chemo was tough on Nora this week.  Energy down but she fights it. Two (or more) cups of coffee each morning. She wakes up before dawn. It was one cup, unfinished, before all this. I make it a point to have coffee a button-push away the night before. I often need to make a second pot. After all, I am a writer.

Mother’s Day was good. Rebecca, Dustin and Aaron called. Sarah and Jeremy came for the weekend. A wonderful present.

Someone contacted me about a matching gift program for our medical expenses. I’ll work it out in the next few days and let everyone know. Such kindness. Actually, it is more than kindness. I am without words.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep writing to Nora on this blog. Say anything. She reads it. Her computer skills have improved significantly!

Paul

P.S. Here is a picture I have not shared with family (or friends). It was taken a few months before we moved from Hilton Head Island to The Ridge. We have the pleasure of dog-sitting Aaron’s “Buddy” and Sarah’s “Indy.” St. Francis, eat your heart out.

L to R: Nora (arrow), Buddy, Indy, Bob. Foreground, Tybee.