Happy news and sad news

[madeleone]

I will be absent for most of the coming weekend as my oldest daughter is getting married. It is out of town as they are having the wedding closer to where they live. It will be a very happy occasion, all of  my family will be together which doesn't happen as often these days since the kids are all grown. Most everyone is involved in the wedding, youngest daughter and daughter-in-law are both bridesmaids, younger son is an usher and my older son is doing one of the readings. They have a big reception planned and it should be a wonderful day. I will try to post some pics next week if all goes well. 

Unfortunately on the other side of the coin, hubby's dad (down in Florida) is of dying of cancer.(and when I say that, I mean actively dying, as in—it could be any day.) Some may recall that Mr. M's mom just passed last summer and this whole thing is like really, really bad deja vu.

Dad was not feeling great when we were there in June but was doing OK taking care of himself, driving, mowing the lawn, etc. Mr. M's sisterwent to visit in July and while she was there Dad had a spell and she had to call 911. While in the hospital he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, they also found spots on his liver and testing later showed he has it in his esophagus as well. Original prognosis was 6mo to a year—maybe, but the doc who did the upper GI and confirmed the esophageal cancer just shook his head at that and said in his opinion 6 months was highly optimistic.

Dad did not want aggressive treatment, he said he's 88 years old, has lived a good life and he's ready. Hubby and brother flew down inAugust and when hubby came home 8/26 Dad was still walking with a cane at that time. Within a week and a half he was bedridden, hubby's brother went back as he's retired and so could manage to get away. We have this wedding and as harsh as it may sound, we are not going to miss this special day in our daughter's life. But I know how stressful this is on Hubby, although he says that he said his goodbyes when he left 3 weeks ago,I know he still feels guilty that he's not there and his bro and sis are bearing all the burden of dad's care. The few bright points in this are, Dad's dying at homelike he wanted to, he's not in any pain, and it is going quickly rather than being a long extended illness. I am just praying at this point that he hangs in there a few more days as I have no idea what to do if he dies on Katie's wedding day. I really don't want to tell her til later if it does happen that way, but then I am afraid that someone would be bound to say something—offer her condolences, etc. and that would be a horrible way to find out. God! I hope I don't have to deal with that. Needless to say I anticipate that shortly after the wedding we will be headed back to Florida very soon.

So please keep my father-in-law in your good thoughts for a peaceful end, and send positive vibes for Mr. M to have the strength carry on,pray to the weather gods for a beautiful day on Saturday, and think kind thoughts for me as well and hope that I retain my sanity for awhile longer yet.