Act of love

Back in Madison, but thinking about what a lovely time we had with Dad and Linda. Bill was beside himself with happiness, having his 6 girls (and 3 guys!) around him. He seemed to have good energy, GREAT appetite and amazing ability to communicate. I thought it would be a struggle and frustrating for him. No. He had no problems hopping right in the middle of conversations, and cracking jokes left and right.

He did look kinda rough -- as you can see from some pictures, below. He's still got the black eye from his fall, and he's all puffed up. It's from the steroids. He's still on 6 mg and probably won't be kicked back on the dosage. Linda will hear more on that at his Dec. 8 appointment. But he looks worse than he feels!

A highlight for Heather and I (and Bill) was the opportunity to record almost three hours of interviews with Dad through the StoryCorps program. From the website: "Since 2003, over 50,000 people have shared life stories with family and friends through StoryCorps. Each conversation is recorded on a free CD to share, and is preserved at the Library of Congress. StoryCorps is one of the largest oral history projects of its kind, and millions listen to our broadcasts on public radio and the web."

The StoryCorps motto is: Listening is an Act of Love. And now I totally get that.

If you listen to NPR on Friday mornings, you'll hear StoryCorps snippets that will make you cry. I am a big fan of this project and was totally excited to be able to record Dad and his stories about boating, skiing, working, kids and wives, school, cars, his parents, life and death, so much more! I wasn't sure how it'd go, since Dad's had a hard time with his speech. But wow. He talked our ears off, made us laugh and cry and both at the same time. I should get the CDs in a few weeks and will try to share some stuff.

Another highlight was spending an evening with the Borns at Aunt Donna’s house on Saturday evening. It’s only about once a year that I get to be together with mom’s family. Heather and I grew up having about 10 aunts and uncles and 20+ cousins within a 10-mile radius of our house, so our extended family became our nuclear family. And they’ve embraced Dad and helped him through all this stuff. So, thanks Aunt D., thanks all you Borns. (Jason, I still don’t buy the LTD story…..)

Enjoy the pix!