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Fireflies and Magnolias…
June 18, 2022
Here I sit, put on the beautiful back deck/porch of Baby BoyI’s home. Today was a breathtaking, cool, sparkling day. The sort of perfect, late Spring, Mid-Atlantic June day and now an evening filled with fire- flies twinkling in the dark and massive creamy blooms of Magnolias scenting the sweet breeze.
This entry will be short, I am recovering from yet another ER trip where I was admitted promptly.
Just the facts: I was barely back from the previous trip and stay in the hospital and lots of new prescriptions and follow-up visits lined up. My Canadian travel insurance, after receiving all my recent records, contacted our sons and wanted to expatriate me with a Comfort Companion straight back to British Columbia! Before we had a chance to discuss this, bam! Woke up one morning, could not hear a thing, blood all over, raging fever.
Short version: Burst ear drums. Mastoiditis, double ear infections, and pneumonia.
I could tell at the hospital they were not holding out much hope about my hearing ever going back to normal. They communicated with me by writing on
White Boards and paper. I was on oxygen the whole stay, both arms full of needles and IVs and antibiotics and serious pain killers.
It was the first time ever in my life, there was a safe-discharge query before I could leave. And I had to eat. I had not eaten in over ten days and it is still hard to eat.
Baby Boy I and II took shifts and I was never alone. Baby Boy I once joked he get more work done in my room which was quiet except for beeps and alarms. Compared to his house with three children and three dogs, it was easy to work from my room!
I wanted to thank Pamela for her sweet note in my forum and Candor for his generous kind words too.
One thing to document, a few days before all this sickness started, I was reading aloud to our little, red-gold, big blue eyed grandson. He sat quietly as I went to get the last book before bed, and he looked up at me, so drowsy and sweet, little cinnamon freckles dusting his nose and cheeks.
“Wait, I just had a song. For you.” He sat up and started singing and he was heart-breakingly beautiful and sweet.
The song is much too personal and truly precious to not melt into a puddle of love and deep wonder.
He finished singing and said, “I really do want to build a castle where we can live forever.”
Every word is written upon my soul and every rhyme laced into my heart. I thought my heart was going to burst from love and awe.
Earlier that day, Jelly and ButterBean accompanied their nanny and I to an office for blood work and follow-up. They waited with their Uncle and as I walked to the door, holding on to her arm, they ran to open the double doors and one took my purse and they both wrapped their arms around me to “make sure you don’t fall” and even people on a busy sidewalk smiled and laughed and spoke to us. We were all masked but of course that did not take away their spun gold beauty or sweet voices.
It just blew me away, their strong little arms around me, ButterBean carefully taking my shoulder bag, my love for them and the absolute joy I have with these two little brave and kind girls, the way JellyBean kept patting my hand when we were in the big Suburban, the bottle of cold water they had brought from home, because they knew I have to drink a lot of water, and JellyBean never stopped patting my hand, being very careful of the big bruises and needle marks on my hand.
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