Some things one just can't manage with three small children.
As you can deduct, a lot has happened since I last posted.
My parents came to visit. The weather was only somewhat cooperative. Unfortunately the first few days were speant doing car stuff, including the fact I managed to give my mother-in-law's car a busted tire...
So two days later, my sister and her husband Will arrived. They actually left after we did but buzzed around Germany and Austria after Mother and Marshall left.
Daniel got time off and managed to march them around Alsace. Will, a former bar tender enjoyed the local wine, beer and spirits. Alsace has good all-of-that!
We did bring everyone down to Benfeld to see my mother-in-law. They all walked in and Joselyne repeated "Beaucoup de monde! beaucoup de monde!" a couple of times (a lot of people). So "Let's check out the garden everyone, now!!" but she did alright and we managed to get a few photos.
The whole visit was all kind of overshadowed with the situation with Agi. She was only diagnosed about three months ago. The chemo didn't work and she was lined up for some other treatments... Apparently, it was aggessive. We were checking the computer several times a day for news. It just got worse. She was in a coma soon after my visitors left and was dying as I was packing for our cruise, a very strange reality, I can assure you.
She died the day before we left for Rome. I had put a lot of time and energy into planning this trip and it was kind of bad timing. I even checked for my messages and sat there crying in the computer room on board the ship reading the memorials! No, I didn't let it ruin our time and I really enjoyed it, sort of comforted with the fact she was no longer suffering. Life was really unfair to her!
Mother and Marshall rushed back to see her as soon as they returned. She seemed to rally but then...other setbacks...
I was grateful to all those who kept everyone informed. Agi's friends were very disjointed. She had old friends from home, Paris, California, her collegues and students and the people she knew from her daughter Malikah's school, etc. who didn't necessarily cross paths. Well, they managed to GET to know each other and band together. They were posting news and information between them.
For those who have been to our house, especially the bigger gatherings, you may have remembered our Hungarian friend. We knew her almost 30 years. I saw her especially these last few times home since it was nice to have Malikah over. She's older than my kids but played nicely with them. We went to Children's Fairyland in Oakland, which brought back memories of my own childhood. Malikah knew the place cold, since they lived almost across the street.
I'm preparing a separate blog with the cruise photos. I really don't want to go into that subject in this posting, especially on this evening...
I really couldn't have managed it. We had even more bad news. Daniel had a collegue, only 27 who also died of cancer upon our return. He's going to that funeral tomorrow down near the Swiss border...
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