Last week I had one of those phone calls. Close to the worst call you can get. A friend of a friend sent me a message on FB messenger to call. I know this guy, but we are only together if we are with our mutual friend. So I immediately knew something was very wrong. And it was… It was a short call. He told me one of my best friends, my best man, had collapsed at home and was in hospital. My friend is 46. He suffered two strokes from blood clots, one in his brain and one in his neck. Um. Wow. Other than my Father’s passing, it is the worst call I’ve ever had. I was absolutely crushed and strained to find out more about the situation. But in such times, you don’t burden the closest people with questions, so I only had very limited, very ambiguous information about his condition. Frankly, I didn’t know how life-threatening it was. I speculated a lot.
Slowly over time, (and time obviously worked in his favour) bits and pieces of info came across. I still don’t have much detailed medical information but it seems he is out of the woods, a few days later. Phew. There are some impairments but I have not been able to see him yet, frankly, I don’t even know if he is out of ICU. (Which allows only immediate family for visitation). So it has certainly been a few very stressful days. I’m glad a few friends stepped up to ask how I was. It seems there may be a long road to recovery ahead of my friend. I’ll post more as I get information, but the flow of info has been painfully unavailable. Absolutely brutal. Some days you are reminded of the fragility of life. I couldn’t imagine a more unexpected, random event occurring. I don’t have much faith in God, I’d prefer a good doctor to prayers. So I’m hoping he gets the care he needs to recover fully. In my thoughts, get well buddy.

This occurred a few days ago. This is the week Bdot was going to Belgium. The aforementioned situation nearly caused her to cancel her trip. Fortunately, my friend made it through the most critical period – so I was hopefully enough to okay her trip. There is only so much you can control. Anyway… So bdot is in Europe! Belgium and France, specifically. She is there a whole week. I’m getting a few photos here and there, and we are having the occasional conversation on, what is often very sketchy wifi enabled Skype. It sounds like, for the most part, she is enjoying her time. Lots of walking. More on this adventure of hers later.

So it has been a quiet few days here at home for me. My mind has finally stopped speculating horrible futures.