Mike, you know that you and your wife remain in my prayers. This may not be the time or place to post this, but my mother and I (and the rest of our family) laughed about this until the day she died.
My mother went into the hospital to have her spleen removed and during the operation, they discoved cancer on her lymph nodes. The operation took much longer than expected and I spent the time in the hospital chapel praying for her and making promises to God.
They took her to I.C.U. after her surgery. The movie E.T. had recently come out and I bought her a large (about 12") stuffed E.T. figure with big bulbous eyes. Eventually that night, they let me into her room to see her for 5 minutes, but she was out like a light. I hung the stuffed E.T. on the tall metal stand used for fluid drips at the foot of her bed and left for the night.
I found out later that she awoke during the night and with no light in the room, except for moonlight from the open window, she could barley make out the huge clock on the wall and the second hand that jumped from second to second. It was during one of her awake moments that she first saw THE CREATURE with 'big eyes' seeming to float in space at the foot of her bed. She was terrified. She put her pillow on her head and pulled the sheet up to her eyes.
She said later, that it was the longest, most terrifying night of her life and even as the sun slowly rose, she STILL didn't know what the hell that was staring at her with those great big eyes. Oy-Vey, I never lauged so hard as she realated this to me on the phone.
They had a drip in her arm and she told me there was a great big air bubble moving down the line and if it went into her arm, she would die from it. I told her to press the nurse's call button for immediate assistance.
She kept pressing the call button, telling me that noone was responding and giving me a blow by blow description on the progress of the AIR BUBBLE. It's 24 inches away, 23 1/2 inches away, it's getting closer, nobody is coming, it's 20 inches away and on and on.
Finally, she said "IT'S GOING INTO MY ARM NOW", it's in there, I Love You........ GOODBYE. There was a heavy sigh and then nothing. She was gone and I began to cry. After about a minute (which seemed like a year) she softly said, "hello, HELLO". I said, "mom, you're ALIVE."
She said, "yes, and that damned creature is STILL staring at me."
When she got home, her little dog adopted that stuffed animal as it's own and carried it gently to whichever room my mother happed to be in. When my mother passed away, I placed The Creature in the foot of her casket to keep her company and scare the hell out of her if she ever opens her eyes again...... God bless you in these trying times, Mike.
Doug
( laughter is the best medicine.... imo )
