Friends Over Miles & Years

What a week it's been!! One of the greatest things about my invitations to travel is that I get to connect with friends, old & new. In Chicago I had the opportunity to have dinner with one of my dearest friends, Renee Sutherland pictured above. We were walking buddies for years & kept each other sane thru the years of parenting adolescents. We live just over an hour from each other now -- but it seems like we normally meet in other cities. It was great to get caught up. Renee had a 3 DAY presentation on Conscious Discipline. WOW. I'm impressed. The luxury of time! (Oh and that's the Hyatt chandelier.)

We then traveled from the windy city on to southern WI to spend some quality time with our friends, the "Saint" family. How great to have an excuse to connect again. You may remember our adventures together this summer. Saint is my BCO sister. She doesn't like to think of herself as a hero, so perhaps I'll call her a 'shero' instead. Pat is currently having a transfusion about once a week. Her blood counts were especially low upon our arrival, so I was allowed to escort her to her appointment at the hospital.

She had an especially chatty nurse, and so we had nearly seven hours to tell stories & get caught up. We laughed. We cried. Then we'd laugh all over again. I had my blackberry phone with me & so I could read the messages posted on her thread over @ BCO. Which brought on more tears & more laughter.

We had a marathon heart-to-heart about the "quality of life" and how her treatments for her Stage IV BC impact her life..... and just how long she can continue to journey on. We both acknowledged that this was the weakest I'd ever seen her. Sobering. She's ordinarily such a force of nature. On this occasion she had to pause between coming down the stairs and walking across the kitchen.

After the transfusion we arrived home to the smells of corned beef and cabbage simmering away. Her hubby, Greg had crafted a feast to help celebrate their daughter Molly's starring role in her high school play, "Dark Side of the Moon." So many great memories. Thanks to ZB I had the opportunity to get caught up with my dear friends.