Dear Kids,
         I hope you’re all having a wonderful Easter morning!  When you combine Conference and Easter and Blake’s birthday, what could be better?  I was sorry to miss the fun yesterday afternoon.  Dad tells me that the Easter egg hunt and soup dinner went really well.  Paul and Stefanie and Josh came here afterwards to stay over, and Paul brought Josh up to my room to visit.  We tormented Tina, who was hiding under the bed.
         I’m hoping to be there this afternoon for the dinner at Tom’s.   And to wish Blake a happy first birthday!  I hope I’ll feel well enough to go. I’m slowly recovering from the radiation, but it’s been hard.  My radiation doctor said he’s never seen anybody have such a rough time, even with the short course.  The side effects aren’t supposed to kick in for at least 2 weeks, but for me, it was more like 2 hours.  We barely got home the first day when my insides exploded.  I’ve had it all: nausea, cramps, diarrhea, muscle pain, and fatigue.  By the third treatment I was so dehydrated they had to put in an IV and give me fluids.  That was the day Nora showed up at the clinic to cheer us up.  She was great! She took Dad to lunch at Costco, and they brought back Lindt truffles.  I so appreciate everything you kids have done for me, and everything that everyone else has done, too. Heather and Kim and Donna have given us delicious soups.  Everybody has prayed for me, and I hope you’ll keep it up.  I can endure all this much better because of your prayers, and the prayers of your kids, too.
         I really came to appreciate the kind people at the Huntsman cancer clinic, the one in Murray.  I was relieved to have the last treatment over with, and they wished me well.  I got to “ring the bell.”  I said it might discourage people who are still being treated, but they said it would help them.  There are lots of ladies there who’ve been through chemo and are having radiation now.  They’re all incredibly cheerful, but incredibly bald. There’s a basket of beanies that people donate, and I put in one of mine.  Remember a couple of Christmases ago, when we girls were all giving each other the knitted beanies?  I ended up with three of them, so I donated my purple one.  The next day I saw it had been taken.  I hope the lady who has it will survive and get well.
         Thanks again for all you’ve done, and for your prayers.  Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
         I’m typing this letter with nine fingers.  The non-participating finger is wrapped in bandages, because I accidentally slammed it in the car door Friday afternoon.  I had gone to Heber in the truck with Dad to pick up our car from L&L auto shop, because it had snapped a spring the day before.  (We had been driving down 300 East in Heber when we heard a loud bang in the car, like a cannon going off.  Luckily we were close to the garage.)  So here we were in Heber again, to pick up the repaired car, when I mashed my finger.  Blood was dripping everywhere, but the nice guy at the garage gave us paper towels and a bottle of water to clean up with.  Dad had to leave his truck at L&L, drive me home in the car and help bandage my hand, and then get Julie to drive him back to get the truck.  If this whole story sounds incoherent, it’s because my brain is fried from all the pain pills I’ve been taking.
         But on a very bright note, next weekend is conference and Easter.  Here’s the plan: After the Saturday afternoon session, so, just after 4:00, we’ll have the Easter egg hunt at John’s house.  Each family needs to bring enough eggs for their own children, but we’ll mix them all up. Then we’ll have our traditional bread and soup dinner.  If everybody brings either a soup or a bread, or rolls, we should have plenty.  Then the guys will go off to the Priesthood session at John’s stake center.  Afterwards, John is providing ice cream.
         The next day, which is both conference and Easter, we’ll be having dinner and a birthday party for Blake at Tom’s house, just after the afternoon session.  I know we usually have Sunday dinner between the two sessions, but because of the party, we’ll eat later, to give us more time.  You can call Kim for a food assignment.   I hope this is all clear.  I’m hoping to be there both days, for all the fun, but I don’t know how I’m going to feel.
         I’ll be having radiation, starting tomorrow, through Friday, and it’s a special intense “short course” radiation they’re using now for colon cancer.  I’ve heard regular radiation isn’t so bad, but I haven’t found anybody who’s been through this new kind.  I googled it, but all I found was very technical information from scholarly journals, geared towards doctors.  There were mortality statistics, but nothing about how the patient will feel.  So I’ll be finding out.  Wish me luck, and please keep praying for me!  I can feel the power of all your prayers!
          Because of all my medical troubles and pain, I’ve finally given up the piano class we’ve been doing at the Lighthouse church for 8 years now.  It was a hard decision.  I planned on just ending the class, but the other teachers (led by Sandra Rickett) said they definitely want to keep it going. They’ve put too much into it to just drop it all, and they love doing it.  I sure wish them well!   I’m not dropping my piano ladies in Heber, but I’ll have to cancel some of our classes.
          But life is good. It’s all good!  I love you all!  Mom

Dear Kids (and anybody else who might be reading this),
         Practically everybody knows that I have colon cancer. The colonoscopy I had on Monday showed the tumor really clearly. It’s about 3 cm across and 1 cm deep, and it’s partly covering my lower sphincter, which explains a lot of the pain I’ve been having. After the cancer showed up on the colonoscopy, they had us stay at the hospital for a cat scan and an ultrasound, to get better pictures of it. If it hasn’t spread, my chances for recovery are really good. There’s a spot on my liver that might be problematic, but there are liver surgeons who go after those. So I’m really optimistic. I’ll have five days of really intense radiation, starting a week from tomorrow, and then I get a week off to recover. Then, on April 10, I’ll have surgery where they’ll take out the last few inches of my colon, and hook me up to a bag, which I’ll wear it for the rest of my life. I’m really looking forward to the change. That part of my anatomy has been giving me trouble for 33 years now, but finally I’ll be rid of it. I won’t always need to know where the nearest bathroom is. I can go backpacking in the wilderness, or stay at a primitive campground. I’ll be able to eat foods that I’ve had to avoid for the last several years--maybe even ice cream! I can barely imagine how nice that will be!
         You know how the ads on your phone always reflect what you’ve been googling? A couple of weeks ago I was getting ads for brown sandals, which I’d been looking for. Then, last week, I started getting ads for colonoscopies. (They really have ads for those!) Now I’m getting ads for lawyers who specialize in wills and estates. How creepy is that!
          But I really have a strong feeling that I’m going to survive. I don’t think my time is up yet. And it’s all in the Lord’s hands, anyway. Thank you all so much for your prayers! I can feel the power of so many good people praying for me, especially children. I think the Lord gives special attention to their prayers.
         Dad and I slept over at Nora’s house Friday night, after watching Paige in "Peter Pan." (She was a very cute fairy.) Cathy Ackerson was there! She had been to a conference in Salt Lake, related to her work with Wells Fargo. She’s just as lively and friendly as ever! We slept over in Nora’s basement, which now has carpet. Vanessa’s family was sleeping over, too, on their way to Disneyland. But there was plenty of room for all of us.
         We also got acquainted with Nora’s new lovebird, Boris. He’s still a chick, but large for his age. He has spectacular colors of green and bright blue, with peach on his throat. He knows he’s beautiful. He’s very friendly, probably because he was hand fed. I’m looking forward to playing with him a lot more, when we visit there.
          So life is still good! I love you all! Mom

Dear Kids,
         I’m uploading my Mom letter a day early this week, because Dad and I are going to swap out my desktop computer for a surplus school computer that Tom got for us, and it might take us more than a day to get everything set up again. My desktop is at least 10 years old, has only one working usb port, has trouble reading CD’s and DVD’s, and is slow to open and close its tray. The one we have from Tom isn’t new, but it’s newer than mine, and I’m sure it will work better. Besides that, we’re saving it from the crusher.
         If anybody has stopped reading my Mom letter, I don’t blame them. It’s only medical news any more. But that’s my life! I saw a proctologist ("bum doctor") on Monday, and he wasn’t very nice. He was completely unsympathetic to my problems, and didn’t seem at all concerned about my symptoms, but he scheduled me for a colonoscopy Monday morning. At least I’ll find out if there’s anything seriously wrong with me. One good thing–when I told him I could hardly stand the pain, he said he’d prescribe me "a couple" of percoset. When I groaned, he said he’d make it 40. I told him he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.
          And it’s a good thing I got loaded up on pain pills, because Wednesday morning I had to have a root canal. There was a filling Dr. Condie had done the week before, and he had warned me he’d gotten very close to the nerve, and it turned out to be too close. I thought once I had the root canal my tooth pain would be gone, but it hasn’t let up yet. It’s so bad, I hardly think about my other problems. I take the pain meds every four hours, and I’ve gotten to be like the mean old lady in "To Kill a Mockingbird," who always set her alarm for her next dose, and tried to make it through till then. I hope the tooth pain will let up before Monday, so I’ll only have to deal with the colonoscopy. Which reminds me, I have to do the colonoscopy prep Sunday afternoon and evening, so we won’t be up for visitors Sunday night. I’m sorry, because we always enjoy having you kids and our wonderful grandkids come and visit us. It’s the highlight of my week.
          I hope I can write a more pleasant letter next week. If I don’t write at all, it’s because we couldn’t get the new computer set up, or because I decided that life itself simply isn’t worth it. I hope you’re all doing better than I am.
          Love, your unhappy Mom

Dear Kids,
         There’s a blizzard howling outside, but we’re cozy and warm. We’re happy for the snow, even though it has come really late this year. I’m not thinking about spring at all any more.
         Yesterday afternoon Dad and I went to the wedding for Scott and Stephanie’s adopted daughter, Christina. I’m sure she doesn’t even know who we are, and come to think of it, we never did greet the bride and groom, but I really wanted to see Katie, and any of my other sisters who might be there. We sat together–Dad and I, and Jane and Joe, and Nancy, and Katie. You know, how the old people sit together at weddings, on the sidelines. (Katie pointed out that we were the oldest people there.) We talked about our health problems. And there was a nice dinner. Oh, yes, and we talked to Scott and Stephanie, who I hardly would have recognized. They’ve both lost more than 100 pounds . . . Scott way more. They both look really good.
          I talked to Sharon this week, and I was wondering if Lucy is still interested in being baptized in the Provo River. Sharon said, absolutely! She’s telling all her friends she’s going to be baptized in a river. I talked to the lady who owns the property there, and she’s delighted to have us come and use her pavilion. I guess they’ve had a lot of baptisms there. I heard about one kid who had a rope tied around him so he wouldn’t be swept away, when the water was high. It won’t be high in July. Anyway, the date is July 28, in the evening, after the Allen reunion at Riverwoods Park. What a great day that will be!
         Dad and I are still keeping the doctors busy. I saw my hand doctor, but he can’t do anything to help me at this point. The places where he operated for trigger finger are still OK, so it’s other tendons farther out on my fingers that are making them lock up. It’s not bad enough yet for him to see exactly where the problems are. So I have to wait on that. Meanwhile, I have an appointment tomorrow with a "bum" doctor. I’ve had a lot of pain and bleeding, and I’m more than a little worried. I hope it won’t turn out to be anything serious.
         We think about all of you, all the time, even though we don’t talk as much as I’d like to. I hope you’re all doing great.
         Love, Mom

Dear Kids,
         We finally had some excitement this week. We cut Tina’s back toenails. They had grown long again, and were very sharp, and she had drawn blood on my hand. So we did the procedure I learned from a lady in my piano class: You stuff her head first into a pillowcase, wrap it tightly around, with only her feet sticking out, and then stretch out one foot at a time and clip the nails. It really works. I do the pillowcase, and Dad does the clipping. When we were done, she walked around like a queen, proud of her well-groomed toes.
         Not very exciting? Well, we had a great snowstorm, too–the same one that hit most of you. We got nearly a foot of snow, the best we’ve had all year. People finally revved up their snowblowers. The family who owns the pasture in back of our house had a great time out there. The dad hooked up a long rope to his RTV, put a sled at the end, and put a couple of kids on the sled. Then he pulled them around the pasture in big circles, spraying snow in their faces, dumping them at practically every turn. The six horses were running after them, along with the dog. Our neighbor dog was racing back and forth in his yard, all revved up with the fun. It looked really cold to me, but they were all laughing. Especially the dogs.
         It’s been very cold here, too–below zero Wednesday morning. The wind has been icy. But I’m glad we’re finally having winter, so spring can come. And Easter! We have a good plan. Nora’s family will be gone to Disneyland that weekend, so they might have an event at their house the weekend before. I’ll keep you posted about that. Then, on Easter Saturday (March 31), which will also be conference weekend, we’ll have the Easter egg hunt here at our house, or maybe at the cabin, probably about 1 pm. Then we’ll have the soup dinner around 5:00, before the guys go to the priesthood session of conference. We’ll probably have dessert afterwards, too. The next day, Easter, will also be Blake’s first birthday, and the party will be at Tom and Kim’s, probably between the two sessions of conference.
         Finally, some real excitement!  I can’t wait.
         Lots of love, Mom

Dear Kids,
         February is absolutely the longest month of the year! We’ve had practically nothing going on here, except for our doctor visits. Dad’s toe is healing. He’s lucky it hasn’t been terribly painful. My arm is healing up, from the carcinoma surgery I had a couple of weeks ago. I don’t have to worry about the scar, since I always wear long sleeves anyway. I’m seeing my hand doctor this week, about two of the fingers on my right hand–they’re locking up again, after already having the trigger finger surgeries. I hope they can be fixed again. I had a great dentist visit last Wednesday, because I’m getting two new crowns, making four bright white ones across the front. The old teeth underneath have simply worn away, cracked, and broken. But it’s exciting to get new, white ones! I think that’s all our medical news. Nothing very exciting there.
        But it’s supposed to snow today! And Nora’s family is coming by this evening, on their way to the cabin for Presidents’ Day. And we might have some of our other usual Sunday visitors, Tom’s family and John’s family. We really enjoy the visits from all you kids. Yesterday I was so bored I called Donna to see if she wanted to bring her kids over for a while. She came! She even had an extra little girl she was tending. (She says one more doesn’t make any difference.) It was fun to see them all. Our house enjoyed the action.
        And Easter is only six weeks away! It’s the same weekend as General Conference this year, so we’ll have to make a plan where we can have a Saturday Easter egg hunt, and watch conference, too, and have a place where the guys can go to the Priesthood session in the evening. That could be here at our house, or the cabin, or Nora’s house, or anywhere, really. We’ll have to talk it over. By the way, the General Conference schedule is changing: In the spring, they’ll still have the priesthood session on Saturday night, but in the fall, they’re going to start having the women’s session that same Saturday night, instead of the week before, like they used to do. That means that for October conference, we can have our usual Saturday night soup dinner, and then all the women can go off to their session, while the men tend the kids! It sounds like a great change to me.
        Life is good, just not terribly exciting right now. I hope all of you have more going on than we do! Lots of love, Mom