Lynette woke me on Thanksgiving morning, 2017 to tell me she needed to go to the hospital because she was so short of breath. From that day to December 12, the roller coaster pretty much went only “down.” Remembering the the admonition from the UMMC nurse, we decided to go to Baptist. I was sure I could get her there faster by driving her than we could by waiting for an ambulance. Sure enough, when we arrived at the Baptist ED and we told them Lynette was short of breath, they took her straight back to the treatment room.

She was on oxygen from that time forward. It took several days of attention from the hospitalists to feel that we had her shortness of breath under control. I was not in the pulpit on November 26 (and would not be until January 14). Lynette’s sister Linda came to see her at Baptist on Thursday, bringing smoked ham and other goodies from her Thanksgiving dinner. We never had our family Thanksgiving dinner otherwise.

One event we were determined to make was Sarah’s senior voice recital on November 27. By great effort, home oxygen services were arranged and Linda helped Lynette get dressed for the event. Linda had previously gone on Saturday, the 25th to help Sarah shop for her dress for the recital. Sarah was doing an internship at Christ United Methodist Church in their music department. One of the church members had very generously given her money to shop for a recital dress. This person, plus another from Christ also took care of providing refreshments for Sarah’s recital.

There are pictures of Sarah, Lynette, Dr. Rob Pearigen (President of Millsaps) and me from the night of the recital. I’m sure I don’t really appreciate how difficult it was for Lynette to be present for that event, but she was there. She didn’t make it to Sarah’s graduation or even to the “fake graduation” Connie Shelton and Phoebe Pearigen were planning, but she made it to that. We are most grateful.

Lynette came home on oxygen and pretty much dependent on a wheelchair we were lent by David and Denise Ware of the Harrisville church. She could stand and walk a few steps, but she was going downhill.

A home health agency began seeing her after her time at Baptist. In addition to a nurse, a physical therapist came to see her. She actually did some walking around the first floor of the house with him. Even at this point, we were hoping for her to become strong enough to return to MD Anderson for treatment.