A lot to be grateful for

This last week has been very stressful and because of that it took awhile for me to see the love surrounding me. One week ago my daughter and I were about 100 miles away from home and headed for the airport. The plan was to fly to Orlando where Kelly was attending a national writing conference and me, well during the day I was going to Disney World! We were to join up in the evenings and see more of the park, but more than that these trips have turned into a way to solidify our wonderful friendship. However, things happen and about 1oo miles from home I received the phone call everyone with a spouse hopes never to hear. My husband called to say that he was having another "incident." Another stroke. He called our son-in-law, John, and John gathered up his granddaughter and drove Dale to the hospital.

Dale walked into the emergency room and was admitted to the hospital. Two and a half days later the stroke finally played itself out at around three o'clock Friday afternoon. He was left dazed and with no ability to to move his left arm or leg. He has been improving slowly and today was his first day in rehab. This is a program at St John's hospital in Springfield. Rehab on the second floor is beyond rigorous with at least three hours of therapy everyday. By the middle of the afternoon he was exhausted, but he was wheeled down to the dining room to have his first meal sitting at a table. This evening he asked to be helped into a wheel chair so he could go for a ride and be found sitting up and out of bed by granddaughters and a great granddaughter! he was a different man. I cannot say enough about this program or about my husband. He has been poked and prodded, he has been awakened dozens of times by nurses, aides, kitchen staff, lab people, and he always says thank you, every time.

My family here has really stepped up. I am not sure I could have survived without them. Visits of grandchildren, support from daughter and her husband, and more friends literally than I can count. A half dozen friends from CA, four from Indiana, my TAS group, neighbors and all the friends Dale has made on his morning coffee days at Starbucks or Paneras and a whole quilt guild, several hundred strong, amazing. For now, I am covered. So thank you all for caring enough to offer help. I may take you up on it sometime, but for now, I am okay. The days are incredibly full. I hope to see my husband recover. At one point I had to remind him that he is my life and my love. Almost fifty years and we know each other so well, he would say too well.

My thanks to all of you who worry about me. I am blessed. If, when I need help, I will ask.