My mother called tonight and told me that she’s praying that her sister dies soon--because her sister has asked her to pray for that. I guess my aunt is off all meds except for pain meds.

My mother who is very susceptible to pneumonia has a cold.

And I think I’m getting a cold too. . . . and my shoulder injury still doesn’t seem to be improving.

And it hasn’t been sunny here in what seems like forever.

Sigh.

(The above comments are listed from most important to least important.)

My mother’s prayers were answered at about midnight. I just got word. I have to focus on the peace.

What a blessing, for her to go home when she needed to, and she was happy to do so.

I’ll be praying for you and your mother in your time of loss. Your aunt may be in a great place, but that doesn’t stop the missing her.

Bree

Thanks Bree. Please pray for one of my sisters too. She’s depressed to begin with and the news about my aunt sent her into sobs. . . . which then upset my mother. . . .

You’ve got it, Joan. I will pray for peace of mind and spirit for her.

Bree

I’m really struggling today. Can’t get myself to do much of anything and I’m really in the dumps--which isn’t like me. I think it’s a combination of my aunt’s death, the fact that I don’t feel up to traveling back to Texas to her funeral on Monday, the fact that this is the third death in the past 12 months--and silly enough that my shoulder/arm muscles are still acting up and I’m thinking that I won’t be able to compete in the bench press next Saturday. I realize how ridiculous the competition is being listed with everything else going on but I was excited as I saw improvement and now I haven’t been able to train for two weeks.

Ugh. At least I know my mood will pass.

Are you feeling more like yourself, Joan? Have you been to the doc about your shoulder?

Bree

Thanks for the question, Bree. I’m a bit better even though I didn’t go out at all today and spent too much time at the computer. Our weather is nasty; high winds, snow blowing everywhere but not actually snowing. On the computer I managed to get from 235 emails in my inbox to “only” 148--a definite improvement.

I guess the fact that all the decision-making about going to my aunt’s funeral is over helped too. I couldn’t get there in time now.

As far as my shoulder/arm goes, it still has me bummed. I do plan on attempting to press the 65# again tomorrow even though it’s not healed. I need to know if I can do it or not and there’s no way to know except to try.

I did not go to my family doctor but my trainer is actually a physical therapist. He moved the shoulder/arm all around and said it wasn’t the rotator cuff. He thinks it’s an inflamed tendon to my bicep. I did go to the chiropractors and they’ve worked on it three times and released the tension on some muscles and moved some bones around (in my back and my elbow). I’m thinking of going for a massage this week to see if that will loosen things up. It hurts less than it did and only from certain moves, but there’s still something there. In the beginning at a certain point I’d lose all muscle strength in the arm and that doesn’t happen any more.

Part of my frustration is that my husband is going to enter this competition too and he has always avoided any athletic competition because he’s uncoordinated--but he doesn’t need coordination for this. So this has been something we’ve been working on together.

I’ve had quite the experiences over the past two days. This morning in church I felt overwhelmed and I just got up from an hour and a half nap.

Friday night we (mom, husband and myself) took off for Jersey as planned so we could go to a memorial service for my aunt at my sister’s church in Jersey on Saturday. Fifty miles from home on Interstate 81 I lost control of the car when the condition of the lane suddenly changed, skidded towards a ditch, corrected to stay on the road, ended up perpendicular to the road, and we were hit by one car. I was able to drive the car onto the shoulder as was the other car.

The relief is that no one was hurt and no other cars got involved. Being sideways on a major highway is very scary. It took about 45 minutes for the police to come and then a bit longer for AAA towing. The car that hit us was drivable so he could leave. Unfortunately, the tow truck couldn’t put all 3 of us in the cab and it’s illegal (and dangerous) to ride in a towed vehicle.

I called the friend who lived closest to the crash. It turns out her brother in law does body work. And there was a Holiday Inn Express at the exit we were towed to. So we decided to have mom and husband stay at the motel while I rode with the tow truck driver to the brother in law’s with the car.

When we got to the motel, they didn’t have any rooms available. I asked if all the stuff and Mom and husband could sit in the lobby until I could get back. Some men heard us and offered to double up and give us one of their rooms. They were music teachers there because of a band competition. So Mom and husband had a place to stay and I headed off.

Once we got to the body shop my friend then drove me the 25 miles or so back to home so I could get Mom’s car. There aren’t any rental places in the area of PA where the crash occurred and we needed to get to Jersey on Saturday. By the time I got the car it was after midnight so I headed to my own bed.

Saturday morning I got up at 5:15 and left at 6:10 to go back to PA and get Mom, husband, and all the stuff. Meanwhile many phone calls happened as to whether we would have the service or not and whether people were coming or not because of the weather.

Eventually everyone said they were coming, everyone made it, and the service was moving. Afterwards we gathered at my sisters for a meal and then everyone safely made it home.

I know my car has a bent axle. The front passenger wheel is at quite an angle and there’s some front end body damage. I’ll have to call the insurance company tomorrow morning to get an agent to see it.

Things to think about:

We could have been badly injured or died--but we didn’t.
The oncoming car could have hit the front passenger door and my husband right on the other side of the door, but he hit the wheel instead.

The other driver could have been yelling and screaming, but all he wanted to know was whether we were ok (and later how long did the police say they would be).

The police were very calm and I didn’t get a ticket even though I lost control of the car.

I was clueless as to where to have the car towed to; my friend had a solution that I know will lead to the best possible outcome for the car and with extreme honesty.

The motel didn’t have any rooms but even today strangers will go out of their way to help others.

We were very blessed Friday night.

No exercise today and not great eating and I spent too much time on the computer. However, I finally made CDs of family pictures as I promised a year ago and they’ll go in the mail tomorrow.