What a week! It went by in a blur of activity. A bunch of people oriented events took place - none of which were expected. But that seems to be the life of a small family-sized church.
On Sunday, when Good Wife Sue and I went to the Salem Hospital to visit Earl, Tom C and family were just coming out of the ER. It turned out that Molly C., foster child of Tom's daughter Jennifer had just died. Tom told me that she woke up that morning in breathing distress and finally, at the ER, just stopped breathing altogether. Tom quickly baptised her before she was pronounced dead. Tom & Margaret were quite visibly affected by all of this as were Ryan and Teyah*, Jennifer's children. Jennifer was still in the ER with Molly's body. We visited Earl, but when we came back out Jennifer was gone from the hospital.
On Monday I had a growth removed from my forehead. I now have three stitches sticking out which my cat Serendipity insists upon rubbing with her chin when I am in bed at night! I wore a dressing on the wound for about 72 hours, but have since left it to "air cure." I'll see the doctor on Thursday to have the stitches removed. In the meantime I just have a dark spot on my forehead.
Monday night I got a call from Peppy Kay, Earl's daughter, that he had been transported from Salem to Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJC) in St. Louis. Earl's wife, Lorna, was still in Salem. Peppy Kay asked if I could bring her over to St. Louis the next day. I said, "Sure," and called Lorna who didn't want to go over until around noon on Tuesday. Lorna, Sue and I drove to BJC in the rain on Tuesday afternoon. Earl's blood tests were very confusing. In the end they figured out that he had suffered a mild heart attack, had gotten dizzy, and had fallen in the shower. His leg muscles were quite weak since he hasn't been getting much exercise lately. But all of that didn't become obvious until sometime Wednesday.
It seems that when Earl first talked with the doctors, he told them about his fall, but overlooked the dizzy spell as, in his words, "having nothing to do with my legs getting weak." When I heard that I went to GQ ("General Quarters" in military terms) and pulled both Earl's son and daughter aside and told them that the attending physician did not have a complete picture at what happened since Earl was filtering the information he gave them. They made sure that the cardiologist, Dr. Norlich, had the info, then things began to pull together.
By Thursday Earl was showing his basic strength and was improving by leaps and bounds. His blood tests, which had been "all over the map" (or so I was told) were stabilizing and it was decided that staying at BJC was not going to add anything. So Peppy Kay came over to Salem with Lorna and I took them out to one of our best nursing homes, Doctor's Nursing, to look over the rehab situation there. Doctor's had just added a new entire wing to the facility and the therapy staff was very enthusiastic - not in a "sales-pitchy" sort of way, but as professionals looking forward to helping Earl (it didn't hurt that most of them know both Lorna and Earl). Peppy Kay is a health-care professional in the great state of Georgia and knew all of the right questions to ask.
So it was decided to have Earl go to Doctor's for his rehab. He arrived on Friday night - a bit out of sorts, but who wouldn't be after all that he had been through. I went over on Saturday for a long, long private talk.
In the meantime, St. Thomas' Halloween Party for the City Kids built up to a crescendo of activity on the parts of Good Wife Sue and me. And then fell totally apart. The party - a cookout in the church garden along with games, etc. - was scheduled for Friday afternoon, to run from 3:30PM - 5:00PM. We were prepared for about 100 children plus their parents and had advertised the event with a big sign in the front yard of the church, fliers at the main businesses, and a flyer distribution program on Monday afternoon that left me exhausted (I walked about four miles putting fliers in door handles and handing them to people I met). Then, on Thursday the weather forecast called for 1 - 2 inches on rain, followed by another 1 - 2 inches on Friday.
I held off as long as I could, but early Friday morning, after checking latest weather forecast, checking the radar imagery, and looking at the motion of the storm on video, I ended up cancelling the entire thing. We had to call the radio station, I e-mailed all of the participants, and Sue called most of them just in case they weren't checking their e-mail in the AM.
Friday evening we had our semi-annual Poker Tournament. For that event, 25 guys and gals show up and pay a $10.00 entry fee. In return, they get a evening of fun and fellowship, a really neat "guy-type" supper, beer, soft drinks, and coffee. The three top "chip gatherers" get a small plaque and I take their picture with Danny S., the organizer of the event. On Saturday morning 20 Bridge players get their turn. The big differences are that they get served Bloody Marys, Virgin Marys, coffee or water, and the meal they enjoy is a small soup, a jello fruit salad, and a chicken salad croissant, along with dessert. The bridge folks also pay their $10.00. The basic income from both events was $400.00, but a few contribute extra, so altogether we got almost $600.00. Doing it twice a year brings in over $1,000, all of which is used for out food outreach to the less fortunate. Along with some other funds, I spend about $2,500 each year for food - reaching out this year to about 200 people.
Today was All Saints Sunday. That was the "normal" part of the service. At the Prayers of the People, I added a short liturgical set sending one of our young men off into the Marine Corps. I gave him a "military cross" and a "military prayer book" that Bishop Beckwith gave to me for him. Then I presented a "Remembering Cross" to Margaret C. to give to Jennifer for Molly.
After the service Sue, Sue F., and I went to a restaurant named "The Leaky Bucket," located at Forbes State Park Lake. This was their last open Sunday until around April 1. They serve, on Sunday, an "all-U-can-eat" fried chicken dinner that is very popular. I think I'm still stuffed from that! Afterwards Good Wife Sue and I visited Earl and gave him his Sunday Communion, along with his wife, Lorna.
Then it was back to the church to start getting ready for the semi-annual Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Rummage Sale. A crowd of six or eight showed up and we all joined together to pull out of storage what seemed like a ton of items for the sale, along with shelves and clothing racks. Now for the rest of the week ahead (until the sale on Friday and Saturday) the ECW folks will sort, stack, hang, display, and price the items for sale.
I always end up saying "I'll sure be glad when this is all over with." But I look forward enormously to working with the people in St. Thomas to help one another in our church family as well as so many people in the community. There remain other things I want to accomplish in my life, but this time as a deacon, then priest, has been filled with the joy of Jesus Christ.
Sweet Dreams and God Bless All. TAD+
* In the original post I had spelled this "Kayla," because that's what my 70 year old ears heard! I have much trouble with hard consonant sounds (ka-ta-pa, etc.). My apologizes to Jennifer and family.
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