My Dad

Dear friends,

As many of you are aware, my dad has been very ill over the past few months. I got a call at 3:00 this morning that he had just died. I will be going to see my doctor this morning, and getting my treatment. After treatment today and tomorrow, I'll be going to Peoria to be with my family. There is a visitation scheduled there on Wed evening and the funeral will be on Thursday.

I was able to get my much awaited and anticipated vacation to Tucson in before this happened, although it was touch and go up to the day before the plane left whether I'd be on it or not. But Jack and I had a great time there. I had some trouble after he left with swelling and pain in my abdomen and a fever, but managed it and got back here for my treatment today. My blood counts were good, even though I had been AWOL from the Cancer Care Center for 2 1/2 weeks. The nodes causing the edema are the main problem right now. I'm hoping today's treatment will help with that.

I spent a lot of the last few days alone in the Tucson area going to my dad's favorite places and trying to send him the sights and sounds I was experiencing. I wanted to do for him what he couldn't do for himself. I can easily picture him with his floppy hat sitting on the bird-watching benches at Madera Canyon, a pair of binoculars around his neck, bird book in hand. It makes me smile.