A Week I Don't Want To Repeat

We are now back home at Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale, but last week was one I hope I don't have to repeat for a long, long time. I'll back up to Monday....

My daughter Suze, had left for a four night cruise from New Orleans last Thursday and was due to arrive back in New Orleans today. Dean and I decided to take a day to drive over to the MS. coast to see what progress has been made during the past year. About 10:00 am I called Suze as I knew that she would be off the ship, to see if she wanted to meet somewhere along I-10 for lunch. She answered her phone and said that they (her and her friends) were just coming up to Slidell, LA and meeting would be great. I, of course, asked how the cruise was and she said "awful". Seems that on Friday afternoon she began feeling puny and by that night was sick. She went to the Infirmary and was told she had the Norovirus and was quarantined to her cabin for the duration of the cruise! How depressing to know that here you are, on what is supposed to be a really fun vacation and you can't leave your cabin. The ship personnel even coded her Sign and Sail card to ensure she didn't leave the ship in Cozumel. The funny part was, when they got back to New Orleans, her card was still coded and you have to insert it into their machine as you depart the ship (that way the know everyone is off) and it flagged her and at first they were not going to let her off! I told her she should have just stayed on, hoping that she felt better in a day or so and got another cruise! They finally decided she was better off on dry land than on the ship and let her leave. So, this began our week of "good" news.

Oh yes, Dean and I did enjoy our day on the MS. coast, visiting with some old friends and driving Hwy. 90 along the coast. There isn't much being built along the section we drove except for high rise condo's and a few homes. We saw one Wendy's and one Waffle House in the approx. 20 miles that we drove. No gas stations. Still a very depressing area to me.

On Tuesday, I called my son, David, to see what was new with him. Well, the "new" news was that he had been having some chest discomfort during the day and went to the doctor. His diagnosis was pneumonia. OK, home and bed rest for him with antibiotics. Now I have two sick kids.

Wednesday afternoon we received a phone call from Dean's oldest son's wife. Seems like Terry had been rushed to the hospital with a heart attack. They live in Sarasota, FL., so it was sit by the phone waiting for news while stressing out imagining the worst. Yes, there were also many prayers being said during the wait also. We decided that we would begin to prepare to drive to Sarasota by getting our sweet big kitty "Tipsy" to the vet, pick up some cash, fuel the Jeep, and pack. Early evening we received the call that told us that Terry would be having heart by-pass surgery in the morning. Early to bed we went so that we could get a early start to a 600 mile drive the next morning.

All day Thursday while covering the mileage between Summerdale and Sarasota, my phone was in constant use. Receiving updates from Terry's wife and relaying them to the rest of the family. Made the drive go a little faster anyway. And, I have to add that we couldn't have asked for nicer weather, beautiful blue skies and moderate temperatures. Even the traffic wasn't bad until we got to I-75 which is not unusual for that area - I've never seen I-75 with light traffic during the day.

During the drive we also received word that our neighbor in Robertsdale, AL (where we had our stick and brick house) had died. By the time I hang up the phone, I'm thinking what next!

We made it to Sarasota Memorial Hospital around 5 pm that evening. Terry, we were told had just came out of surgery, having had some morning delays, and was doing fine. They had to do five (5) by-passes - WOW!! I think he is the first I've been aware of to have that many.

I'm not going to go into detail of our three nights/days spent in Sarasota. It was nice to be able to see our grandson Chris, from Oregon again, even under these circumstances, and our granddaughter Amber and our great-granddaughter Macey. My how she has grown! Chris and Amber are Terry's children.

By Saturday evening, visiting with Terry, we knew that it was OK for us to return home, as he was doing great. We made one last visit with him on Sunday morning and then began the drive back to Summerdale. We decided it was not going to be a fast trip back and decided to check out the 1000 Trails parks, one at Peace River and the other near Clermont. We then called our RV'ing friends, Bill and Helen, and met them for a early dinner at The Villages. After bidding them farewell until sometime in January, we drove to Gainsville were we stayed for the night.

Monday morning we got up early and drove on home with a couple hour stop at Carpenters Campers in Pensacola, FL. checking out the Phaeton's and Itasca's.

It was good to be home and know by this time that Suze, David and Terry were either well, or on the way to full recovery. Now maybe life can return to normal - whatever that is.

During this crazy week, I kept the thought, If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it, in my mind. That along with a lot of prayers from all our family and friends did bring us through a really stressful week. My prayer now is that everyone who reads this has a Very Happy & Blessed Thanksgiving. God Bless You.