Today was get away day - we were up early packing the van and headed 60 miles north to Muskegon to catch the 10:15 ferry back to Milwaukee. Shannon had a bit of an upset stomach and didn’t eat much breakfast. That turned out to be a good thing. The water was pretty rough on our ride and Shannon ended up getting sick. 6 weeks of radiation and chemotherapy couldn’t make her puke, but Lake Michigan got the best of her.
It feels like each day there is at least one instance that brings my emotions to the surface. Today this was it. Shannon was embarrassed and had a moment of fear about being sick and asked me point blank, “I don’t think this is anything to worry about, right? It’s just the rough water, right?” Of course it was, but she still had to ask. Just our daily reminder that we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop... Seeing the fear in her face made me cry and I struggled during the rest of our ride to gain my composure. I knew intellectually that this almost certainly had nothing to do with the tumor, but seeing her get sick got to me. I put the ipod on to settle by mind... David Gray and his track My Oh My:
My oh my, you know it just don’t stop
It’s in my mind, I wanna tear it up
And tryin’ to fight it, tryin’ to turn it off
But it’s not enough...
One rough boat ride aside, we had a great vacation in Michigan that included not only the four of us and our dog Sunny, but also my friend Teri and her dog as well. Having Teri drive the three hours from her Ann Arbor home to join us for our adventure was wonderful. Walking and talking on the beach with T was good for my soul. I miss her already.
Yesterday was made to order - hot and humid all day, with the temp reaching 93 degrees. It was so hot, even I went swimming! (I take an endless amount of grief from my water loving family for being such a wimp...)
The five of us took a mid day walk down the beach a mile and a half into the town of South Haven. By the time we got there, we realized that all of us walking back home was going to be asking a lot of Shannon and Erin. (Probably of me and Teri, too!) So, Dan ran back down the beach, in the hottest part of the day, to the house and drove the car into town to meet us and shuttle us home. Women’s lib be damned, the four of us girls appreciated his chivalry.
Last night we had one of those experiences that we will always remember. While the girls enjoyed some down time relaxing and watching TV, Teri, Dan and I enjoyed some conversation while looking out over Lake Michigan. On the Summer Solstice, the pink sky of the setting sun gave way to ominous storm clouds rolling in across the water. Lightning strikes were constant out across the horizon and we watched the storm cells approach from miles away. Amazing. As we sat and tried to figure out the meaning of life, Mother Nature reminded us that some things in this universe are just simply out of our control...
