Elena 
It was a lovely, long summer that ended much too soon for my liking.
After Rosie’s graduation, we had her grad party right away. and it was terrific. I’ll have a separate link to that later.
A few weeks after that, I got to go down and spend some time with my now grandson, Mr. J. who is just as cute as he can be—also spent some time with his wonderful parents who are handling new parenthood like champs!
I’m with Miss C every day and I am grateful. But I had forgotten what it was like to hold a baby.
A month after that trip, the family headed up to my family reunion, in Michigan. Mr. Pete, the girls, and I rented a trailer on Vrbo. It was a great place to stay. A couple of days later, some more of the family joined us. We had an awesome time on the shores of Lake Michigan.
And now it is time for Cross Country Season. Only Miss C is running this year, and she has quite a squad to cheer for her!
Rosie started her studies as a commuter student at Walsh University. She loves her classes and is already making a lot of friends.
Izzy started back to her art studies at Akron U.
But I still have Miss C. every day for homeschool. She and I read three relatively large books this summer. We just finished Where the Red Fern Grows, which was quite the tear-jerker – for me more than for her although she is excellent at giving hugs to her distraught grandmother.
Unfortunately, we are ending on a sour note. One of my sons suffered a severe fracture to his right ankle at a church function last week – one that is going to require mobilization with wires, bars, and then screws and plates. He is also looking at a very long recovery. I can only blog about my experience.
My daughter woke me up from a sound sleep to tell me that my son had broken his leg. I got up quickly got dressed, and came downstairs to tell Mr. Pete we should get over to the emergency room. We were both kind of taking our time and then my daughter said she was surprised that we weren’t hurrying.
“Well it’s not like he had a bone popping through or anything,” I said.
“Yeah, Mom it is!”
That was like a shock to my system and I started shouting at Mr. Pete to hurry up! The poor guy had just finished walking our dog in his Crocs and was struggling back into his work boots. We got there in time to find my daughter-in-law and Izzy waiting in the waiting room. A few minutes later, they allowed only two of us back – of course, that was my DIL and me.
I’m not sure why they asked us back when they did because we arrived in the room just as they were actually setting his bones. His pain was excruciating.
As a mom, I was debating in my mind how to handle it. Should I leave and give privacy? (Or was it fight or flight kicking in?) Should I stay and try to comfort? Should I just stand there and take a lead from his wife? I decided to stay because that felt the most natural, and held his arm and encouraged him to breathe through his mouth, and I said a Hail Mary silently hoping that somehow there would be comfort for him, for me, for all of us.
When he was all settled, I asked my DIL if she wanted me to stay or go, and she preferred to be alone with her husband, so I gave her a hug and went. She was really awesome and I’m so grateful.
The next day he went into surgery and Mr. Pete came and sat with our DIL since I had to take Miss C. to our first day of homeschool co-op. He’s been spending nights at their apartment since our DIL works the night shift and we felt someone should be there in case he needs something at night. Probably having a Dad in this situation was more appropriate than a mom.
So pray for us, please. It’s going to be a long recovery but a year from now, it will be a memory.
