Update on Grace, Saturday, Aug 21

Saturday. Latest update 10:00 PM.

10:00 AM - Jan and I haven't gone to see Grace yet this morning, but when we got home from grocery shopping a little bit ago, both Bill and Keith were gone, so we expect they are there visiting with her now.

If I can get them to tell me about their visit, I'll report it here after they get back.

I'm a bit wound up today also because I have a band concert tonight. We'll be putting about 72 musicians on the stage, and we expect about 700 people in the audience.

Grace is very sad to have to miss this concert. She is one of the founding donors of this band, when we started it in 2004. If you're interested in what we're playing at this concert, you can see a list of the tunes here. If you scroll down below the list of tunes, you can also see some videos and hear some audios of the tunes we'll be playing. I put them there on the website so band members can listen to the tunes and get more familiar with what we're playing. (I just checked it, and the two bottom listings, the audio-only links, don't seem to work. I'll see if I can fix it soon.)

Ah, Bill and Keith just got back!

They said Grace didn't sleep too well, but that was probably at least partially because of the noise and bustle there in the hospital. Grace called her friend Pat again and talked to her for a while.

As Bill and Keith left, Grace was about to be put into a big chair on wheels - not a wheelchair as we think of it, but more an "upright recliner." We think this was probably to get her upright, to redistribute her weight so she's not always in the lying-down position, and perhaps so they could move her around a bit for a stroll and a change of scenery.

They discussed the plans for the day, talked about family and recent events, and she seemed quite alert.

Sorry that's not much reporting, but at least it's some, and it's what I've got right now.

I'll report more later, when I can. It'll be a busy day today.

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12:01 PM - Jan went to visit Grace about 11 AM, but Grace was asleep when she got there.

Jan said she banged around in the room a bit, making some racket, and said, "Hi, Mom! Are you awake?" in a moderate volume, but no response.

So she left.

Consequently, there's not much to report from that visit.

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4:00 PM - We (all of us here in the house - Jan, me, Bill, Keith) met Chad and Sarah and Katie for lunch. While we were there, I got a picture of Katie waving "Hi, NANA!" to Grace. You can see her arm blurred with the enthusiasm of her waving.

After lunch, Jan, Bill, Keith, and I went to see Grace. She was napping when we got there, but this time when Jan spoke, she woke right up. I showed her that picture of Katie, and needless to say, she was delighted.

We then read her two cards that had arrived in today's mail, and showed her the newsletter from her old Fort Lauderdale Pilot's club. We agreed that now with her having her glasses, she could read that newsletter after we left.

Then Jan said, "Mom, I brought you a hairbrush! Here, let me brush your hair." And she did. Grace obviously enjoyed that very much.

Then Jan said, "I know I brought you something else, too... Let's see, what is it?" She dug in the bag. "Oh, yes! Fig Newtons! Would you like one?"

Grace does like her fig Newtons, and she got a happy smile on her face and said, "I would indeed!"

So as she happily munched on her fig Newtons, Keith scanned the channels on the TV in search of a football game, but unfortunately was only able to find a lacrosse match. So, sadly, we turned off the TV. No football today. Grace is holding out hope for some pre-season games tomorrow. Those of you who know her well know she enjoys watching a good football game, especially if one of her favorite teams is playing. She's alway rooting for the Dolphins, of course, and now she even roots for the Saints, since they're the closest thing we have to a home team here. And she occasionally roots for Jacksonville, since that's where she grew up. And now we'll all be rooting for Denver - at least when they let Tim Tebow play.

Grace scratched at her arm and shoulder a bit, saying something about being itchy, so I gave her a dollop of the moisturizing lotion we'd brought her, and she was very happy to have that.

When Jan was here earlier, Grace was asleep in the "upright recliner" chair I mentioned earlier. We now asked Grace about that, and she said that putting her in that chair was probably a mistake, because the weight was too much. I asked, "Do you mean 'wait' as in you had to wait too long, or 'weight' as in too heavy?" She answered as in too heavy, and we discussed how it was probably because she had been in the bed for so long, and wasn't quite used to sitting up yet. But we did remember that she slept very solidly in that chair, because she didn't wake on Jan's earlier visit when she spoke to her.

Then we talked some about Chad's upcoming new job, and a few other family and friends subjects.

We told her Jan and I went to the library today and got some more books for her, so when she got near the end of her current book, let us know and we could bring her some new ones. She smiled and nodded at that.

It was obvious that Grace was rather sleepy, but she was sharp today, cracking jokes in spite of being sleepy. It's very good to see her getting more and more back to her normal self.

As of now, I'm getting ready to do the last-minute preparation for tonight's concert. I'll be busy with that from about 4:30 until nearly 10PM tonight, so please forgive me if I don't get back here to post more until tomorrow.

Blessings to you all, and thank you for your continued prayers.

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10:00 PM - Just back from the concert -- you should have been there! (Maybe you were? - I know some readers were there!)

While I was at the concert venue preparing for the performance, Jan and Bill and Keith went to visit Grace.

When they arrived in her room, she was reading her library book. This is good news because whenever we've come there before now, the book was just sitting there, and we weren't sure she was actually reading it. But we're happy to see this, because it marks one more milestone in her recovery, and we believe it will also help stimulate her thoughts and her mind activity even more.

They asked about her dinner, and she said she had broccoli salad like Virginia Haessig used to make, and she really liked it.

They talked about maybe getting to see football tomorrow, and about the concert tonight and what tunes were going to be played. Grace said she was sorry to be missing the concert, and said she sure hoped we were going to record it. We did.

They talked about Keith leaving early tomorrow morning and how long the drive would be (11 hours! WHEW!).

Unfortunately, there's still a bit of confusion there, because she asked Jan and Bill if they would help her get up so she could use the rest room. Umm, Grace, you can't get up quite yet.

So Jan fetched the nurse to take care of the necessaries, and then they left to come to the concert.

My observations from this second-had report are that there is progress being made (thank You, Lord!), but there is still progress yet to be made. Prayers still welcome.

One more thing - this makes three days in a row now that Grace hasn't asked for Snick. We are praying she is past that phase of her recovery.

G'nite, everyone. Have a blessed Sunday tomorrow.

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