Visitors and outings

Frequent pastime: video-chatting with relatives

Meg's increasing fatigue has greatly curtailed outings, so we have greatly appreciated all our house guests coming to us.
Our son Nick came out from New York over the Memorial Day weekend and will return with his boyfriend Dan for the Independence Day weekend.  We spent most of the time with him just chatting, and quite a bit of time video-chatting with relatives (Meg's parents, her sister Caryn and our daughter Elspeth). This was a theme of  the various visits and some of the relatives got to appear both on the Seattle and on the remote side of the chats!

Newest lab member, at Emi's party

We managed a couple of outings the next weekend. Saturday saw us at a going away party for Emi, a former technician in the lab who's presently cycling to Ann Arbor!  

Jackie sizing up the job

On Sunday we enjoyed a concert by Meg's Clarinet Choir. Everybody enjoyed catching up with Meg, who had attended the first rehearsal for the concert, just before her recent second brain surgery. 

Meg next enjoyed a visit from Jackie Liles, a member of Andrew's caregiver support group. Jackie kindly tided up our back yard with much more enthusiasm and skill than I ever could have, and also brought us some home-made soup. Her timing was impeccable, as Meg's mother (Jean) arrived that evening for a 5 day visit: brother Gary (from Olympia) was looking after Meg's dad in Santa Barbara, allowing Jean to visit us. Jean's visit overlapped briefly with a visit from Elspeth, who kindly treated us to her chocolate chip pancakes.

Bidding farewell to Elspeth, who'll be back late in July

Elspeth then returned to Ann Arbor, and we were visited by Cathie Cooper,  a friend of Meg's from her undergraduate days, who was one of our hosts for our East Coast trip last Spring.  We spent lots of time chatting with Cathie, comparing cat-rearing stories and swapping vacation stories and pictures. We greatly enjoyed all the meals that she made for us (some right away, some from the freezer after she'd left). Meg found all the visits rather tiring but very gratifying. I was overjoyed to see the happy smile on her face while she entertained our assorted visitors.

Cathie and one of her creations

Things to come: preview of upcoming posts

It's been a month since I posted here. I always hope that "no news is good news" but that, sadly, has not been the case here.  I'll update you over the next day or two with several posts which will (I hope) shape up like this:

1. The good times: some pictures and notes from the assorted visitors who stayed with us over a 3 week period, starting Memorial Day weekend.
2. I'll try and summarize the ongoing, unresolvable, medical issues of Meg's now growing tumor and of the large unhealed wound in her head.
3. I'll touch on how the growing tumor is impacting her life and her abilities.
4. I hope to end on a brighter note, with news of the July 4th weekend visit of our son Nick and his boyfriend Dan.