August 1, 2009

Gene had lots of visitors today.

The Howard clan as well as some extended family gathered at Emily and Gene's house for a visit and took the opportunity to go and see Gene in shifts. He so wanted to be able to be there. He had been instrumental in helping to plan the event and was particularly looking forward to seeing his three great grandchildren. He has loved watching his grandchildren become parents and is so proud of all of them.

The babies are not allowed to go inside Kindred, so the Mom's (Shelley and Lauren) went into the hospital room to visit with PaPa, and Steve, Pat, and Russ stayed outside and held Max and Madison up to the window so that PaPa could see them. He really enjoyed getting to see them.

As always, Emily had quite the spread. All the visitors pitched in and brought things or helped once they got there. The hit of the meal had to be Emily's corn. She cuts it off the cob, scrapes the cob to get the "milk" and puts it in a pan with butter and salt and probably some pepper and cooks it down. Today, Patrick worked the corn after the women working the kitchen assembly line got it all cut and scraped. Every single kernel of corn was eaten! There was also honey baked ham and turkey, and then green beans, tomatoes, a squash casserole, and cucumbers all from garden produce.

Visitors included -
Russ and his daughter Elizabeth and her son Elijah as well as Elizabeth's Mom Betsy
Lynn and daughter Shelley with her son Max, and daughter Liga, and son Valdis. Alan came later in the day after taking his Mom to the hospital (see that story on Lynn's blog)
Steve and Pat, and daughter Lauren and her daughter Madison, daughter and son-in-law Sarah and Ryan, and son Patrick
Emily's sisters Frances and her husband Bob, and Joyce and her son Mark,jr., as well as her son David, his wife Cyndi and their daughter Allison.
Gene's cousin Mia and her son Clyde


Prayer requests
Please pray for Gene's to have the strength to do the hard work to be weaned from the respirator. Pray that his body will grow strong enough to allow his body resources to be used for the healing of his pressure wound. Pray for Emily to draw strength from her family this weekend and to have the courage to continue caring for Gene and keeping her own needs in mind.