A Little Good News...Some Very Bad News

The good news...I had the follow up doctor visit yesterday morning. I'm healing fine. While I still experience a lot of pain, it is relatively less than before and diminishing every day. The cause of the pain is my body adjusting to the new spine angle that the docs created, wound healing, including nerves, muscles and skin.

Now for the unbelievable, and unbearable bad news. This will come from nowhere, so brace yourself.

The Friday prior to surgery Barbara I visited my mother to reassure her that I was ok. She was nervous and worried and I wanted to allay her fears. We spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday together. She seemed to be calm. On Saturday, while Dotty (my sister) took my niece Hilary and her daughter Morgan to the airport for their return flight to Dallas, Barbara and I took my mother out for lunch. "What would you like for lunch if you could have anything, mom?" "Ice cream," she said. And so we found a soft serve ice cream stand on the shore of Lake Pontoosuc and had lunch.

She was anxious about the surgery, so as soon as it was over, Barbara called to let her know that I was in recovery. Puzzled, my mother said to Barbara, "Harold had surgery and no one told me?"

Such was the state her thinking, when Dotty, Marty and Mom set out to visit me yesterday. With scheduled arrival of 2 PM, and a short visit scheduled given my limited endurance, I thought nothing of it when by 3 PM they had not arrived. Dotty is not known, despite often heroic efforts, to be on time for appointments.

When the phone range at 3:10, the caller ID said "Huntington Hospital" where I had just been for surgery. My daughter in law, Julie, who had come over so she could say hi to "Nanny," remarked that I had probably left something there, and they were calling with the information. No.

It was my sister Dotty. The three of them had been in a terrible car accident at the exit of the parkway, near my house. Without providing details here, their car, while standing still, had been broadsided by another vehicle, and my mother was injured, badly.

I'm sure you know where this is going, so I will spare additional details. Julie and I rushed to the hospital. Within an hour of arrival mom died. She had slipped into a coma, and quietly, silently passed away.

We are of course in shock. Layering this pain and the complications of sudden death onto physical and emotional roller coaster of the past month is a challenge to me personally, and our family strength.

I will continue to recover from the back surgery. And healing from this, a different process, at a different rate, will also proceed. Thanks to everyone who followed me through the surgery, communicated with me through this space, email, telephone and snail mail. I love you all.

This will be my last posting on the blog.

Harry