It's TIME
Well my blood count went up to 800 today!!!! So the doctors disconnected all IV's and said if I don't spike a fever tonight I get to GO HOME TOMORROW.
I always said I never asked, “Why me?” because I was just so glad it wasn’t one of my kids. All of you moms and dads... can you imagine this horror happening to your child? Well, my mother emailed me in response to this nightmare coming to its conclusion. It’s so beautiful I want to share it with you. (Although now you will all know the secret – my real name isn’t Ellen).
Once upon a time, a party was held at 6 Lantern Lane, Media, PA, our home in those days, to celebrate Ellen's (then: "Eleanor's") two-year old birthday. Many little girls came, dressed in their party best, with ribbons and bows and Mary Jane patent-leather sandals. There were giant balloons and birthday cakes and the weather suddenly turned warm and sunny, with all the lingering iciness bleeding out of the soil leaving lots and lots of early spring orangey-brown mud in our backyard garden. And there was a tiny creek way at the back of this property (a place deer and pheasant ran through, thus of course giving me Lyme's Disease, but this unpleasant corollary I did not know at the time) so we all conceived the idea to run outside, balloons and all, down to the creek and throw pebbles and stones into it, all full of joy that Spring had come and that Elean-o-r had achieved the exalted State of Twoness. A great party, which Henry memorialized on videotape, perhaps you guys can find it though maybe we lost it -- and lost everything except our memories, of those times. And then the fine day ended with all the up-tight mothers coming to get their children all in a snit because the mud had utterly ruined their frocks and their Mary Jane black patent leather sandals.
So, only a week before about the 50th anniversary of that event, there will again be a sunny weekend at an Elean-o-r house, with all the optimism and joy of those early days, returned. And more wine too.
- Written by My Mom (not sure she wants her name posted)
