Next Sunday.....

Cindy:

Mom woke up at 8am this morning still having pain in her arm, but excited and ready to go to 10:30 mass. By 10:00 though, her plan had changed we would go to 6:00 mass instead. She made herself a cup of coffee and ate a few bites of coconut bread . Right away her stomach started to hurt and she started feeling like she was going to throw up so she went to lay down. I'm really starting to feel like not getting the chemo is allowing everything that's been so well controlled over the past few months, to spiral out of control. The pains been worse then ever this week, nausea & vomiting after everything she eats has become the norm again. A couple hours later Mark, a long time friend of our mother's arrived unexpectedly which is always nice because he always seems to manage to raise her spirit. He quietly sat with her massaging her arm for over an hour and meditating. I took advantage of the fact he was here, to sit outside and watch the kids play and enjoy the warm breeze something I don't really get to do that often these days. Several neighbors passed by to ask how she was doing since they haven't seen her all summer, each with the same sad look on their face as they asked, making it hard for me not to break down and cry. It's funny we've lived here for over 3 years now and I've have never really gotten to know any of my neighbors, but mom being the social butterfly that she is knew all of them by first name nonetheless, young,old,single,married, what they did for a living. Within the first month of moving in she knew everyone and everyone knew her from the neighborhood or school. They all asked me about her with the same empathetic look on their face, curiousity inciting the small talk I'm sure. But as each neighbor came and went my reply became more and more of an auto response "She's doing good" just to keep the conversation to a minimum and me from crying in front of the kids. After a while honestly all I wanted to do was watch the kids play and not think about it if even for a little while. When she finally woke up at around 7 tonight she was upset she'd missed mass for the 2nd Sunday in a row, she took her medicine and went right back to sleep. Saying

 "I guess we'll try again next Sunday"....