...and so it has. SO much stuff has hit the proverbial fan, that I almost don't know where to begin. If you're here, though, it means you're either my mom (hi Mom!) or you got here from my website, in which case you may know some of the story already.
Since I last posted, our entire little world here has been turned upside-down. My husband of almost 30 years has been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He started feeling yuck at the end of April, as he does every year, and went to his doctor and got put on antibiotics for "that bronchial thing" as he does every year. However, this time they did not work and he just got worse and worse, until he went to his pulmonologist, who ordered a CT scan. And to make a long story with a lot of tests and a 10-day hospital stay short, that resulted in his diagnosis.
I can't say enough about our fantastic family and friends. You hear catch phrases like "support system" so many times that they sound trite and lose meaning in and of themselves. But to have one is just such a blessing. Not only our family and close friends, though; friends we haven't seen for years. Customers I barely know. My landlady at the store. My pharmacist. My mother's pharmacist. The guys at the garage who fix our cars. The guy at the hardware store. Just everyone is pulling for him, and of course they all have been through this or something like it or know someone who has.
Our son is here. It was not in his plans to move back to RI, but circumstances other than his father's illness combined to make the decision for him. It's funny how things work like that. And his job situation worked out just fine too, enabling him to go right from one coast to the next in the same company without missing any time at all. My sister came back for a visit too, coincidentally just days before Preston had to go to the hospital. I literally don't know what I would have done without her. Sure someone else could have kept Mom company and fed and talked to our dog, but that's thankfully not how it worked out.
So life has been one doctor's visit after another, radiation treatments (which are done now), chemo (which just started), questions to be answered, prescriptions to be filled, dietary needs to be considered, welcome visits from loving friends and family, and a little work in between, when there is time. I have closed my store, and I'm just fine with that. Whether or not I will re-open it and when is something I don't need to think about just now.
