February 4 2005
Yesterday I received my blood test that gave the “stats” on how it all is going, and they were disappointing. I lost ground all over the place, and when I called the nurse about it, asking if perhaps this had been caused by the chemotherapy, she said very gently, “I’m sorry. . . I am afraid it is the disease.” This was tough, because she also said now you must be so very careful about infections, etc., etc. And the next day the dear ones were coming in from all over.
What a splendid event it was! This was the kind of day that will become landmark in our family history; it will likely move onward at least as large as Valentine’s Day and might even leap past Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. Since the family pictures taken on New Year’s Day didn’t turn out due to a malfunction of the camera and the film, the children determined to gather for a photo session on this Saturday. We got the photographer lined up, and the children gathered, even if it meant that Janna and Todd drove well into the night after leaving Chicago Friday afternoon, and John-paul ended up flying about via Cincinnati from Seattle in order to find a reasonably priced fare.
On Saturday morning, Janna and John-paul came out and as they came up the stairs, they both said, “Mom! You look so much better that we thought you would!” (You see, they have had to deal with this from a distance, and I suspect it has not been easy) We had lovely visiting, and John-paul made us a fine lunch. Heidi in the meanwhile was preparing a feast for us for supper, and would come out just before four with Todd and the twins following. Four o clock was when the photographer was coming.
We picked the photographer because he had taken Charles’ picture for First Plymouth, and it was really good. We didn’t know at the time that he specialized in photographing children, and was that ever a good deal with the three five year olds! We sent him a picture of the living room, and he and Charles agreed that we had to get rid of the sun beams that come in at that time of the day, so Charles covered all those huge windows with the New York Times. It looked very strange! The man was delightful, and as I said, absolutely splendid with the little girls; the twins had just awakened from their naps, and he charmed them into smiles and such within seconds. All four of the girls were fascinated by his magic quarter, and you could see that he knew exactly when to capture them laughing and smiling – of course, the rest of us were also at our best.
After pictures, we had the supper. Heidi made Swedish meat loaf, a meal that I have been making for years as a special one; hers was grand. At the sight of the highly successful foods, Heidi, Janna and John-paul, all of whom were working in the kitchen, proceeded to do a “kitchen dance” in delight. It was unforgettable, of course!
When I was at the hospital, during one particularly trying test in which I was getting a nuclear scan of my abdomen and was lying in the CT Scanner tube on my back, I was told I had to lie very still for 1 1/2 hours. Late the night before I had had the bone marrow aspiration on the hip, and the pain just kept getting more intense; when I asked the nurse for a bit more padding perhaps, she said, “Sorry dear, just lie still” and went on her way. So. In order to survive the experience, I went home to Iowa in my brain. . . and I commenced to make donuts there in that kitchen of my memories. I measured out everything, did the whole thing, and concluded it by shaking the hot donuts in the paper sack of sugar. Afterwards, I told Heidi about this, and she remembered my making donuts for all of us when they were growing up, but we agreed that we hadn’t had such a thing for years. 
When she told her husband Jon, he said, “What? You can make donuts at home? We have been married for almost twenty years, and you have NEVER made them for me?” (He loves sweet things above all else) Heidi told him that she didn’t wan’t to give him ALL the advantages. . .. he should just keep hanging around. . . She brought cookbooks to the hospital and we found the ideal donut recipe and Heidi declared that when I was home and when we were together, we would have the donuts.
On Saturday, she brought the risen dough which we cut out, and after supper, we fried them, shook them in sugar, and found them to be fabulous. More kitchen dancing. A large platter was brought forth, and the day ended with everyone eating donuts until they were gone.
The children left, and on Sunday morning, Janna and family and John-paul returned to their homes. Both Charles and I have said it was a day that had so many “unreal” qualities to it, it truly will be a singular experience in our memories. One of the very good things that happened was that all the children visited with Charles about how he is doing with this, and what they can do to help both of us. . . I do reflect that if this situation were turned around and if it were Charles that had cancer, I would be absolutely frantic inside. He is very calm and cheerful and hopeful always.