After our fabulous trip to Disneyland, everything seemed to feel better. My stress was down. The The Wicked Witch of the East was being nice to me. Things were just more calm.
Raine decided she wanted to try her hand at candle making, or candle molding or something. She was up late working on it. At 2:30 in the morning all I heard was Rumi yelling, “Fire!” She had gotten gotten up to go to the bathroom and when she walked past Raine’s room she saw this bright fire. It was contained to the center of her desk, but it was pretty big, maybe the size of a gas burner. I told her to get me a bowl of water. When I threw it on it, the fire shot up like I had thrown gas, but then it went completely out. We were all so shaken we couldn’t sleep for hours, and then I had to go to work. No matter what I did, I couldn’t catch up from missing that sleep.
On a good note, Rumi made my Great-grandmother’s Kolachkys for Jodie’s coming Thanksgiving lunch and that made me so happy. I don’t know how she makes something she’s never tasted so wonderfully. My Grandma would have been so proud.
But we had so many Thanksgiving dinners! My friend Rita came up with the idea of “We Three” so we had a “we three” thanksgiving on Tuesday and Wednesday, because I have learned from the past that it is better to make half one day and half on another day. On Saturday, we had a big dinner with my book club. Families, children; it was just so lovely and homey. Would you believe I was the only one who knew how to carve a turkey? It was kind of cool, because everyone was impressed. The food was lovely, and I hadn’t seen anyone since my mom died, so it was good to be surrounded by Shanghai family.
I had my phone behind me on my chair, because I intended on taking pictures, but I kept forgetting. But I heard it vibrate, and it was Maddie, Jodie’s daughter. I answered it because she would only call if it was an emergency. I couldn’t understand what she was saying, because she was crying so much. I gave my phone to Rumi and told her and Raine to go into another room and try to talk to her. All they could figure out was their dad was going in an ambulance. I said to tell her that we will be there as soon as we can.
We left that party, went home, took care of the dogs, packed a quick bag, and got a car, and we were there in about 40 minutes which is a feat. When we arrived there were already about four or five adults from church there. One was the youth group director who was with Ami when she got the call, and he came with her.
I found out what had happened was that Jodie was out having coffee, and Ami was at a youth group thing, and Oscar was napping, so only Maddie and Lulu were around really. They went to go in their parents’ bedroom to say something, but they couldn’t open the door. It wasn’t locked. He had collapsed in front of it, blocking it from opening. Lulu ran to get a neighbor while Maddie tried to get inside. An ambulance was called and arrived by the time Jodie made it (she was just around the corner).
He had a brain hemorrhage. By midnight, he had emergency brain surgery. We and a few others slept over. The following lunchtime was supposed to be a thanksgiving church lunch at the Clark’s house. Jodie hadn’t slept at all, but she still wanted to do it, and we did. There were a lot of people getting everything done in no time.
It’s been a week now and they’ve taken him off the ventilator and given him a tracheotomy because they said it was better for him. He hasn’t woken up yet. He isn’t or is barely breathing on his own. The brain swelling hasn’t gone down, but it stopped actually swelling. I’m sure they’d appreciate all positive energy and prayers sent their way.
What’s most weird is I spent more time with him last week than I have in eight years. When the some kids wanted to go on the mine ride, we took the others to the pirate show. When the girls wanted to ride Tron for the 4th, 5th and 6th times, we sat and drank coffee and secured a good seat for the fireworks. It’s crazy how fast things change.
I’ve been sick at home for three days ( nothing contagious—I’ve been tested for everything). And as I’m sitting here listening to Christmas music, I keep think of my mom. A song comes on and I keep thinking about how she decorated the tree, and would turn all the lights off except the tree and play Johnny Mathis or Bing Crosby records. Every song that came on was her favorite.
Smiling in Shanghai 