Fragile

Sometimes there are vivid reminders of how fragile life is. Last week the man who was Ian's basketball coach this year had to undergo a quintuple heart bypass surgery. Thankfully, he was discharged from the hospital today. This morning the woman who was my choir director from January 2009- May 2014 ended up in critical care on a ventilator in the ICU. At first they thought she had a heart attack, but she did not. While she was at the hospital this morning, her father-in-law suffered a small stroke. I sang in the choir with her mother-in-law those same years. What a day Pat has had with her husband and daughter-in-law each being taken by ambulance to the hospital on the same day! Similarly my mom got bad news last week that the chemo was ineffective. Her tumors grew larger, and she has a new one in her liver. I went down to Maryland Saturday morning, and my dad and I ended up taking her to the ER that night, which was a challenge because she is very weak. She was discharged from the hospital this evening. When one undergoes all the awful side effects of chemo for six months, one hopes to get some positive results, but it didn't work out that way for my mom. The kids and I are driving down tomorrow afternoon. It has almost been six months since they've seen my parents, and they've never gone that long before without seeing them. In the past my parents have come up for things like basketball games, soccer games, Nadia's birthday, when the kids were in a program at church, etc. Oliver was so excited when I started packing the suitcase this evening that he went downstairs, went into the garage, got in the van, and buckled himself in his carseat. I came down a minute or two later and let him know that we weren't leaving until after Nadia's Little Mermaid rehearsal tomorrow. They can't wait to see Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Maurice! My parents have been restricting visitors (including no grandchildren) since my mom has been on chemo due to her weakened immune system. Tomorrow it will be four weeks since her last chemo, and the grandchildren were given the green light to come at that point.

My sister, her husband, and seven kids are flying to Maryland on Thursday, hopefully. I say hopefully because there was a terrorist attack today at one of the airports they will be flying out of, and flights are temporarily suspended following today's attack. I never like to hear about terrorist attacks, but this one definitely hit me more since I know my sister and her family plan to use that one this week. I am so very glad they weren't there today! My kids haven't seen these cousins in 18 months so we are glad they'll be in the US until early September. The fact that Coach Tom (who sings in the choir I sing in and is also my music pastor's dad), my former choir director, her father-in-law, and my mom are all Christians makes all the difference in the world. This world is not our home. We're just passing through. I know I will spend eternity in Heaven with each of those people. That brings great comfort, but still there is sadness, as it is painful to watch those we love suffer.