Senior Sagas, Chapter three

With the news of Guy's cancer spreading to his lungs and that he would never walk or talk again, the neurologist and internist gave him just a few days to live on that dark day of January, 2002. We arranged to have our new Minnesota granddaughter to be baptized in the hospital that weekend.  Our minister got special permission, since it had never been done without consulting the Session.  The family came, and two elders were witnesses.  Guy was propped up on a chair on Morphine.  The following week, we took the x-rays to our Oncologist at Froedtert.  No cancer.  The doctors at St. Marys were wrong.  Now we had hope.  After a week in the hospital, an ambulance took us to Bradford Terrace, a rehabilitation facility in downtown Milwaukee.  Guy was there three months.  I slept on a cot in his room.  Therapy was requested by me (the doctor had ordered Guy to be left alone.  Guy had developed pneumonia and didn't have long to live according to him), and Guy had it five days a week.  He learned to walk and talk, and, on Easter Sunday, he lifted his left leg for the first time.  He is rising!!!!!!!  Friends and family were constant, and his wall was filled with good wishes. We transferred to a temporary facility for eight weeks while we remodeled our Mequon condominium.  Guy came home on weekends for a test, and we brought him back with 24/7 care in June.  Our minister sent tapes of each Sunday's service, and he came to our condominium every week for an entire year.  Our first caregiver spent that summer with us, and then moved to Chicago.  Henry came in September.  He was a fitness expert.  We joined a wonderful special needs pool program at the Schroeder YMCA with him.  There are trained volunteers and lifeguards to help, and the water exercise did wonders.  Henry cooked healthy meals for us, too.  We loved him.  We had in-home therapists from Horizon.  "Pat the P.T." arrived and said, "I don't know about you, but I don't do negative".  It was the best news we had had in months.  Pat taught Guy to walk up the stairs, get up from the floor, and balanfce himself in a standing position.  She was a true blessing.  Then, one day that December, I came home from errands early.  Henry was across the street, talking to a friend in a car.  Guy, paralyzed on his left side, was alone in a hot shower.  Goodbye Henry!