A quiet weekend..with a side of frustration and sadness...and a smile..

OK, first the frustration..Kathy had to go in for an emergency procedure and was taken by ambulance from Lake Havasu back to Phoenix..happily, all is well and she's now back home in Lake Havasu...

In the meantime, Gerri has had one of those worst-case scenarios in the hospital in Tucson..a painful choking incident, followed by a probably-could-be-a-lawsuit-case of a very painful and roughly handled removal of tubes by an "on-call" doc that has has numerous previous complaints..if she's released tomorrow, it will have been 10 long days..scary and tiring and painful...and my heart breaks for her..

And Saturday would have been my brother's 71st birthday..and I miss talking to him and singing Happy Birthday..

But he wouldn't want us to be sad, so I pulled out of my memory a story {and we Irish do like our stories..} of a time we were reminded he was 10 years older than me..

It was during his post-marriage single days and he was dating ..a few..but this one seemed quite a bit ..younger..than Larry's 36 years..

They stopped by my house..I was about 8 1/2 months pregnant with Jeff..and h.u.g.e..had 2 other kiddos running in and out..

The conversation somehow went to the fact that I always knew how old he was because he was 10 years older than me....

The 'date' asked..
"soooo..how old are you??"

I looked over at Larry, standing behind her..giving me the universal hand signal for.."Shut up..Stop talking..do.not.say.anything.else" ..

"Uh...I'm..uh.....um..13??"

Yeah...she just sort of looked at me and gave one of those "huh.." looks..

So, it's Sunday night..and I will go to bed with a smile..Gerri will be released soon, Kathy is on the mend.

....and Larry, well, I still miss him more than I can express, but I can remember and smile and sing "Happy Birthday" to him..and I am certain he will hear me..and smile..

Have a wonderful week-beginning and try to think of a "smile-rememberie" too..

-me

ps...