A lovely note...

I just had to post this letter from my mom to a friend
- I love the way my mom writes, Maybe I get a bit of
my tendency to love prose from her...

Dear Marilyn, T. S. Eliot had it right: April is
the cruelest month. We have had a couple of family
crises this month already.

On about the first day of April, Eric -- Lee Anne's
husband - had a stroke that turned out to be very
slight (Thank you, Lord.) He has some verbal memory
impairment but only enough to cause him some
inconvenience from time to time, and he is improving
steadily.

Then Joe Jr's baby, Nanette, arrived on the 11th, a
gorgeous Rubens blond, (10 pounds, 2 ounces) but had
to be delivered Caesarian and after some trouble
getting her to breathe was immediately air transported
to Emanuel Children's Hospital in Portland where she
has been in the neo-natal intensive care unit awaiting
surgery on Monday for (I hope I get this right)
Congenital Diaphramatic Hernia, which means she has
had, since she was just a tadpole, a hole in her
diaphram which allowed a portion of her intestines to
bulge up into her chest cavity, impeding the
develoment of one lung and pushing her heart over into
the other lung. (Occurs once in about 4000 births, so
not awfully rare.)

[editors note: there is a corelation between the
under-deveoped lung capacity and the CDH, but it may
not be direct. In other words, according to Dr.
Krishnaswami, the lungs are under-developed, and there
is a hole in the diaphragm (as opposed to "because
there is a hole...")]

On Monday the surgeons plan to push her intestines
back down and close the hole in her diaphram. This
will be laser [editor's note: thoroscopic, rather than
laser] surgery of at least 4 hours and then she will
require careful monitoring for four days and hospital
care for at least a month.
Fortunately, she is large and strong as well as (her
nurses tell me) good-natured and easy going. Her
heart is strong, though not, at the moment, in the
right place.

Mom and Dad are staying at the Ronald MacDonald House
right next to the hospital though one or the other of
them can be found in a chair right next to her both
day and night. I can't begin to describe what a
blessing Ronald's home has been to our family and will
continue to play a large part in our lives for at
least another month. Emanuel Hospital is wonderful as
well and staffed with exceptional people.

Katie and Carter are presently here with us, though
they spend most of their time with Uncle Gary and Aunt
Penny and the cousins. They colored eggs last night
and will have their Easter Egg Hunt tomorrow over
there. Penny is also cooking Easter Dinner and Eric
and Lee Anne will join us. Joann's mom and Gordon and
her sister from Florida (a nurse) are spending the
weekend hanging out with Joe, Joann and Nanette Jo.

I know I don't have to entreat your prayers and loving
thoughts for Nanette and all of us who love her. I
also ask for thankful prayers for all the wonderful
medical workers who care for her and the staff and
volunteers at the Ronald Macdonald home. What a place!
It is an uplifting experience just to walk through
it.

This to explain why we've been out of touch lately. I
plan to write more personal note soon. Blieb wohl,
mein Kind. Sorry I don't know it in French.

Love, Marilene