June 19, 2003
Dear Everyone:
I
jinxed myself last week.
Thursday evening I crowed that I was going to spend an entire week
working in my “Pleasant Hill” office, for the first time since I moved
there last January. That was
true until around
Not that I minded, since being in “Pleasanton” put me that much closer to home at the end of the day. So I drove down, had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, and met with the customer, who was, in fact, the supervisor of my telephone operators. It seems that the database system that we had set up for them wasn’t working out as well as we had hoped. A new process was needed.
So I met with one of the lead operators, and we figured out a way to move the enormous Word document that all the operators use to a shared drive so that everyone could see the same document at the same time. There were a few complications, but we would work them out.
Afterward, I went to a “borrowed” location that I know of. This is a former cubicle that has no one assigned to it, but which still has a live network connection, so I could plug my laptop in and log onto the system. This was also the first chance I had to check my voice mail.
And that’s when I got “Frankie’s” message that
Mother had been taken to
I called “Frankie” and we agreed that a family
member needed to be in
While “Jeannie” conferred with “Marshall”, I went
online and ordered plane tickets for “Jeannie”.
Originally, I was going to take her to the airport Saturday
morning; but “Marshall” decided that he should come along, so he drove
up from
Then I spent the day staying busy with chores and
waiting for “Marshall” and “Jeannie” to call with word about Mother.
And waited. And
waited. They finally called
a little after
Evidently, I was the only person who waited to hear. Everyone else either called the hospital or came in person. I understand that the nursing staff finally put their collective foot down and said that the family would have to designate a single point of contact. Thus “Jeannie” became the Minister of Information. All questions and answers would go through her.
“Marshall” called again Sunday morning to say that Mother was already looking much better. He had to get back to work, but “Jeannie”, intrepid little soldier that she is, stayed at Mother’s place in Mary’s Woods. Each day, she visited Mother in the hospital. And each day, she called five brothers and sisters to disseminate information, take questions, and carry out orders. And each day, the word was that Mother looked and felt better than the day before.
As of this evening, there’s a very good chance that
Mother will be released from
If all goes well, “Jeannie” will come home next Monday. In the meantime, I’ll stop by her place on Saturday to pick up mail from the neighbor, and check on her email and eBay bids. And stock up on cat food and litter. Each of us, in our own way, doing our part. Together, we’ll make it through this. That’s what families do.
Love, as always,
Pete
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