Everyone loves mom, and it is so great to see. The personality psychologist in me has been noticing the variety of ways that people express it....
I get emotional and cycle between crying and irrationally goofy. Daddy gets all the medical details and makes a plan while giving me a hug. Elizabeth takes care of everyone, which over the last 2 days means that she has been very bossy about making me stay hydrated. Ben and Noah haven't been here for my observation, but they've been keeping up-to-date as best they can while continuing to be their brilliant selves and work hard on their school work.
As for the rest of you...
Some people pray. Every prayer chain on the East Coast (and a few across the country and around the world) have been lit up. We are worried and upset of course, but I think this feeling of "this is going to be okay, whatever that means" is the feeling of hundreds of people praying for us.
Some people bring food. We haven't even set up a meal coordination thing yet (but we will!), but the lasagna fairies showed up, as did the soup fairy, the muffin fairy, the kimbop fairy, the salad fairy, the chocolate fairy, and the cookie fairy. We have had good food ready to go when we come home to sleep, and more good food to snack on at the hospital.
Some people make sure she gets the best medical care possible. The UVM medical center have had so many specialists coordinating on her case, and the nurses are careful about making sure they have the right orders, and listen if we have concerns or heard something different from the doctors. Dad's sister is a professor at Yale medical school (and is working all of her connections with their neurology department), one brother lives near Dana Farber (and said mom is welcome to stay at their house during treatment), and the other brother just listed off all the best neuro-oncology facilities in the country (and made sure we knew that if we wouldn't be pushy about second opinions, he would). They know mom is too special a lady to mess around with anything less than the best possible care.
Some people send gifts. Flowers, cards, bookmarks, puppets.... mom's hospital room was very cheery. (And we had to borrow a cart from the nurses to bring everything to the car....)
Some people show up. As Grammie said when she arrived from New Jersey, "As Woody Allen says 'half of life is showing up'". Mom wasn't up for a lot of visitors though, so those of you who couldn't show up in person showed up with phone calls, texts, e-mails and facebook messages. We knew mom was loved, but wow!
Thank you all so very, very much!
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