Dear family and friends of Joy:
Lots of smiles all around. From left: John, Mary Anne, Joy, Sue, Susan and Paul.
On December 4th, Joy and I went by ourselves to a Christmas party down the street at the house of our good friends Jackie and Craig Hill. At first Joy saw all the cars outside the house and didn't want to get out of our car, but I persuaded her otherwise and as we got inside she was enveloped in the warmth of all her old friends in the community. Of the 25 people or so who were there, half had not seen Joy since her stroke and all were overjoyed to see her out and about. We ate heartily of the Christmas Chili and casserole and later from a dining room table filled with every conceivable kind of dessert. It was our first night out together in a long time.
Sue Thomas regularly takes Joy into town now for shopping trips and an occasional lunch. Her constant interaction with (and devotion to) Joy is the reason that Joy is continuing to recover at a slow but steady rate. One day we took Joy upstairs to our second floor master suite for the first time in a year and Joy got to visit her walk-in closet which contains clothes and accessories she had gathered over the past 40 years. This was a thrill for her and her smile indicates how pleased she was to be there:
It was wonderful to see her go up the stairs. She did it fairly easily and surprised us. We were hoping she would carefully take one step at a time and put both feet on each step, but she insisted on taking each step with one foot. She had a little problem with balance, but compared to the first time we tried climbing the stairs, she was very adept. Two months ago she struggled terribly to get up the stairs to the landing halfway up. When she got to the landing, she became afraid and decided she didn't want to continue on. So we sat her down and slid her back down the steps on her rear. This time she was much more sure of herself, intrepid and determined. It was yet another sign that she is improving, often in ways that we don't see until something dramatic like this happens.
I found this old photo of Joy and me and thought some of you might like to see it. It was taken a few months after we met in 1991 when Joy was living in Los Angeles and I was in Oakland. Back when we were courting, you might say. She'd fly up to see me once a month and I'd fly or drive down to see her once a month. This photo was taken at her condo at Rancho Palos Verdes which is just below all the beach towns in LA:
It was taken just before we went out to dinner at some fancy restaurant. Joy looked stunningly beautiful that night.
Back to the present: Joy's angioplasty procedure will take place this coming Thursday the 22nd, precisely a year and a day after she was struck down by her aneurysms last December. I am feeling the dread I always feel before these procedures, although I feel she is in very good hands with Dr. Sanchez-Mejia. We have to leave the house at 4 am to check in at 5 am at Scripps Green in La Jolla. Surgery is scheduled for 7 am. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.
The landscape around here is often dramatically beautiful this time of year and I have a couple of photos to prove it. The first shot is looking north out our backdoor at the San Bernadino Mountains at around 7 in the morning. The sun had not yet risen above the mountain to the east of us. The day before a moderate-sized Pacific storm had passed through. The tallest peak in the San Bernadino Mountains is Mount San Gorgonio at around 11,500 feet:
Here's one of our house at sunset with the full moon rising and then another closeup of the full moon above the hills:
We live in a beautiful spot and we are grateful for it.
I will try and update everyone as soon as possible after Joy's surgery. They think she might be able to come home after a night in the hospital and I hope that is the case. We are also praying that her recovery is not interrupted in any serious way, that she can quickly regain her equilibrium after general anesthesia, although Dr. Sanchez has warned us that her recovery could be set back.
Merry Christmas to you all and may you have a happy and prosperous New Year.
Love,
Doug and Joy
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