Taking the Scenic Route

The bad news

Joy is going to continue with rounds of antibiotics for a month, and then they will reevaluate.  The really bad news is that the day she had her scope (Wed. I think) her dad had a heart attack.  He is having an ECG to evaluate if he needs a bypass and how many bypasses he needs.  He is in his early 50s;

The other news that is heavy on my heart is that a person very, very dear to me, almost the level of a grandparent (we actually had them ‘treated’ like grandparents at our wedding…escorted to the front of the church with the families and had the photographer get a picture with them too), is dying.  Arnie found out recently that he has leukemia.  Last week when he had maybe 2 weeks to live, he had to find permanent care for his wife, Genny, who’s Parkinson’s is advancing.  She went to a nursing home earlier this week, but ended up being transferred to the hospital to deal with some problems with her Parkinson’s.  I got to know them when I picked them as my mentors when I was going through catechism.  (Before baptism, we pick a person/couple in the church who we go to for guidence / counciling / friendship who will get to know us.  It is to encourage inter-generational interaction and gives a teen an adult to be friends with that isn’t necessarily their parent’s friends.)  My heart is just broken for how much I will miss them and how hard it has to be on Arnie to leave her when he has been her caregiver.

Here is a picture I got of them the day of Zane’s dedication.  (the Mennonite version of infant baptism…we have Beleiver’s/Adult baptism only, but have a dedication as an infant where we promise to raise him Christain/church promises to help, things like that.  No water involved.  It isn’t a baptism, but has it’s roots there since we broke off of Catholics centuries ago, so you see parallels every once in a while.)  They are walking to the river, which is just at that tree line.