Traveling Again

The weather yesterday was just atrocious. It was one of those days when the clouds were low, gray, and pouring rain all day long. Driving around the Baltimore-Washington area is never easy, but in that kind of weather it was especially odious.

We spent a lot of yesterday on the road. First, we drove to Silver Spring to visit our friend Rudy and exchange holiday gifts. Then we drove back up to Pikesville for our kosher Subway lunch. That was completely out of our way, but a luxury we could not pass up. After lunch, we drove south again to the Woodlawn area to visit my cousin Irene.

She surprised us with how well she looked. Last Thursday she went to the emergency room with a stroke. They found an 89% blockage in her left carotid artery, but it only affected her speech a little bit. Her strength in her limbs was miraculously unaffected. She really was blessed. Now she is home on drug therapy to try to shrink the blockage somewhat before surgery, which will be in about four weeks. She is on blood thinners and under orders to rest and take it easy until the surgery to clean out the artery. Sitting around and just giving orders is NOT Irene's way, so this will be a challenge. She is a nurse, so she knows the implications of not following orders. Her husband Gary and granddaughter Heather will see to it that she complies!

We spent about two hours visiting with her and Gary and their great-grandson Kevin. Kevin is already 10 years old! So hard to believe. I thought it might be full of other relatives, but they had all gone back to their homes. We had Irene and Gary all to ourselves, which was fantastic.

I have included some pictures today from Evey's college graduation party in May of 2010. Irene, Gary, and their granddaughter Heather attended. I posted a picture of the three of them. I also posted some pictures of my family. I was depressed looking at the pictures of myself. It was a month before I found the lump in my breast. I was back from a fantastic seven week vacation; Evey had graduated and was planning her move to California; our house was cleaned out and up for sale. I was forty-five pounds thinner and had my long hair. I look so different. I had no idea that day what I was facing in just a few months time.