Clarification

"Oh," said Linda, reading the last posting on my blog, a catch in her voice, "You were crying!"

"Well," I said, a little embarrassed, "I was. You know how run down and dehydrated I was getting, and being treated by the oncologist with such unexpected kindness, deeply touched me. But I'm feeling much better now."

The phone rang. It was my daughter in Guelph. She'd been reading my blog and was concerned.

"No, he's fine now," Linda assured her, looking across the room at me as if to make certain my mood hadn't changed in the last fifteen seconds. "Its been a tough week. Uncle John drove us down to the hospital yesterday for your dad's very last radiation treatment, and they needed to hydrate him a second time. He's been doing really well keeping his liquids down today."

Reassured, the conversation drifted off onto other things.

And when Linda hung up, the phone rang again.

It was my brother Keith. "I was just reading your blog," he told me.

"Maybe I should be more careful in what I write, or in how I write. I didn't mean to scare people. I was very run down from the weekend and I failed the posture test."

"The posture tests?"

"They take your blood pressure and pulse rate while you're sitting, then they have you stand up and take it again. I was 120 over 75 with a pulse of 79 while sitting, but 99 over 84 with a pulse of 111 when I stood up. That's why I was so dizzy. Dehydration."

"And today?'

"My pulse rate still goes up when I stand, but nothing like that and I've really been keeping up with my hydration. Linda's been my coach and keeping a log of everything I've been drinking. We have another appointment with the oncologist on Friday. Kathy's driving us down."

Somewhat reassured, we talked about other things and then disconnected.

The phone rang again.

And again.

Through the day.

I really have to be a little more careful in what I write. I seem to have frightened a lot of people.

On my blog the comments just kept building up. Loving, reassuring comments. Touching thoughtful comments.

And so today I'm drinking. And drinking. And eating. And feeling stronger.

Of course I wasn't able to get around to taking pictures of Lawn Art for today's Friday Shootout Post and scouring older pictures on my computer didn't reveal much of interest. But I did find the photo at the top of today's post, of the fountain in our backyard, surrounded by Forgetmenots.

Somehow, that just seemed a very appropriate image for today.

There have been a lot of people expressing a lot of concern that I will never forget.

Thank you.