All's Quiet on the Western Front

Last night, Betsey had a peaceful, uninterrupted night. This morning, at about 6:30a.m., Ellen went in to see how she was doing, noticed that she was awake, and asked if she wanted some pain medication. Betsey said, "I'm ok." Yesterday, I think the pain meds were ticked up a bit, maybe just a bit more frequent, and that seems to have helped. Right now, it's just me, Ellen and Katie here. Yesterday, Rob decided things were going well enough that he could go to his conference at Aspen. So he left yesterday at about noon, and will be back this afternoon. We were glad he had a chance to get away. Right now, John is up in Gold Hill at his AirBnB. He had a wicked elevation headache yesterday - he went from 400 feet in Vermont to 9000 feet at Gold Hill within a 12-hour period - but he had quite a bit of time sitting with Betsey yesterday, reading to her, talking a little bit. He'll eat his breakfast at the AirBnB and then come down to join us mid-morning. Emma arrives at 9:30a.m., so things will pick up a bit a couple of hours from now, but right at the moment, it is very peaceful here, and for this we are grateful. I got pretty good night's sleep last night. That was great, because Wednesday night, I got very little, and yesterday, I was sort of a basket case. Ellen is not getting much sleep at all.

Betsey did not eat anything at all yesterday, and the only water she had was with her meds. She now likes to just suck on a swab dipped in water to ease a dry mouth. She is asleep much of the time, and with the pain meds a bit more regulated, seems to be at peace. We know from earlier conversations, especially with her Qi Gong healer, that she is ready to slip away, so we are just surrounding her with love and peace as much as we can. Last evening, for about a half-hour before she went to sleep for the night, I read aloud to her from Wind in the Willows, the wonderful chapter titled, "Dulce Domum." I know she loves that chapter - she and Rob had John read portions of it at their wedding - and it felt like a perfect thing to read right now.

John arrived on Wednesday, and late afternoon, a package was delivered to the house - it was an "Edible Arrangement." a bouquet of fruit arranged on little plastic stems in a vase, like a flower bouquet. It was from the Crockett clan in Illinois. We enjoyed it as a dessert after our supper, and finished it off yesterday for breakfast and lunch - we happened to have some delicious raspberry sorbet on hand that went well with the fruit.

Ketie and John contemplate the Edible Arrangement