A Good Sunday...

One month ago today, we enjoyed an incredible day with Kimmy...starting out in the morning, I made everyone breakfast.  We looked at photos that we had collected over the years, and Kim wept with joy, saying 'what a wonderful life we've had'...I remember telling her we still had a lot of wonderful memories to make, and right now, we would work on getting her healthy again.  I helped Kim get cleaned up and dressed, and, as the day warmed up, we set up a lounge chair that Betsey had brought over, outside so Kim could enjoy the beautiful sunshine and blue sky.  She was not on oxygen and in good spirits.  As we sat outside, all of neighbors came by to enjoy Kim's company.  Amy, Tom, Betsey and Brian all sat around and basked in the glow of our sunshine, Kimmy.  She really enjoyed herself that day, but not as much as we enjoyed her. 

As the day began to get cooler, we moved inside.  Our friend, Andrea, came over to visit with her daughters, Lexy and Breanna.  Kim was so happy to see them and we set about making dinner for everyone.   Although Andrea told me later, that Kim had told her she could actually feel the tumor in her lung, Kim showed no signs of feeling poorly, but this was when the nagging cough had begun, signalling the tumor had further deteriorated the artery in Kim's lung and it was bleeding. 

Kim and I sat up in bed and watched Sunday Night Football.  The Eagles defeated the Cowboys.  Kim was cheering the Eagles on, and, in particular, DeSean Jackson, who she had on her fantasy football team.  When Jackson ripped off a 90 yard TD run, Kim was cheering loudly and clapping.  We had a lot of fun.

Today, to celebrate Kimmy, we got together for breakfast at Viro's Italian Bakery.  The Deever's, the Muszynski's, the Castillo's, Angie, Janene and her boys all joined us.  Their families have ensured that the bambini's and I are finding our way as we begin our own journey - they have been so loving and caring, as have Vito and Rosa and their family - both of their son's, Vito and Joe and his wife, Deanna were there and Vito's niece, Franca and her family and his nephew, Mauro, too.  We are truly blessed.  Without them there to listen and to lean on, we'd be lost.

After breakfast, Mario, David, Brenden, Cody, Tonio, Autumn, Lexy and I went to see the Univeristy of Arizona play Stanford in basketball.  It was Autumn and Antonio's first basketball game and they really enjoyed themselves (and the dipping dots!).  Even in a crowd that large, we saw a lot of people that we knew.  And the best part, Arizona won pretty easily, only giving us a scare in the final minutes as Stanford closed within 6 points.  A young man, Mike Christy, who has never met us, was generous enough to send our family the tickets for today.  He had heard about our losing Kimmy and had lost his father to cancer last year around the same time and wanted to brighten our day...he did this and touched our lives at the same time!

       
                 When we got home from the game, we let the kids play outside, with the Castillo's kids stayed here so Andrea and Mario could go catch a movie together for their wedding anniversary - happy 13th!  I made a stir fry dish from a recipe that Andrea had given Kimmy years ago and the kids loved it.
                 And there you have it...celebrating Kim - she would have loved to see that game with us today and it would have pleased her that the bambini's enjoyed it and we didn't even think about leaving early!  And although I felt a little anxiety coming on, I was able to be strong, battle it off and make a great, memorable day for all of the children, who never, ever, suspected a thing...again, drawing on Mother Teresa, who related this Bible verse "My heart hath expected reproach and misery.  And I looked for one that would grieve together with me, and there was none: and I sought one that would console me, and I found none, Psalms 68:21.  To this, Mother Teresa wrote, in her own time of darkness, 'I looked for the one that would comfort me and I found none....Be the one.'  And so I was, thank you Mother Teresa!
               Love,
                         Dave