Letter from Joy
May 13, 2012
Hi, everyone,
Remember that old joke - if
you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans! Well, for those
of you who read all about my travel plans over the coming
months, God must be having a good chuckle about now. Although I
can't say I think much of His sense of humour. As you may recall,
we came back from a wonderful two weeks in Florida expecting my
husband Warren to fly off to Vancouver for three days of
business, then fly back home so we could head back to Florida
with my sister, spend a week, then drive our car back, then off
to the Czech Republic for a week-long book tour at the end of
May, back to Vancouver and Victoria for five days in early June,
then five days in the Finger Lakes at a golf school with friends
at the end of June, then off to Paris and Italy at the end of
July, and Germany toward the end of October.
Not so fast,
people!
As incredibly bad luck would have it, Warren
slipped and fell in the bathroom of his hotel in Vancouver and
went flying across the room, slamming into the side of the
bathtub with such force that he broke six ribs, punctured a lung
that later collapsed, and injured both his liver and his
gallbladder. An obstruction in the bile duct led to an infection
in the blood, which was very serious, and he had to have a tube
inserted in his side to drain it. The gall bladder has to be
removed, which we're hoping will happen when they remove the
tube, and that it can be done laprascopically, so that he
doesn't have to have major surgery on top of everything else. He
also had an epidural for his pain for a week, but is now taking
very powerful oral pain killers instead as well as massive doses
of antibiotics. He's been in the hospital for almost three weeks
and won't be able to travel for another five! If he flies, it
could be fatal! (Sorry for all the exclamation marks.) So we had
to cancel all our plans, at least until the end of July, then
we'll see. If Warren thinks he can manage Paris and Italy, then
we'll go, but I'm not counting on it. I'm just glad that he's
starting to improve. For a while there, it felt as if we were in
an episode of "House." Every day was something worse. I flew out
to Vancouver to be with him after it first happened and just
returned home to Toronto for ten days in order to see my girls
and my grandson, pay some bills, go to a number of appointments,
do the final edits on SHADOW CREEK, now scheduled to be
published in December of this year, and pack up to go back to
Vancouver, where I suspect we'll be for the better part of June.
So, work on the book I'm currently writing will have to wait.
I'll try to write a bit in longhand, but I'm not sure how that
will go, and it's very hard to concentrate with everything else
going on. Hopefully, Warren will be able to leave the hospital
by the end of next week and we can stay in the hotel, where he'd
be more comfortable, until his surgery, but we won't know that
for a while yet.
Not a lot of fun.
But the good
news is that he's getting better, and Vancouver is a beautiful
city when the weather is good, so being stuck there isn't awful
although it is two thousand mile away from home, and therefore a
bit isolating. But our friends and business acquaintances have
all been incredibly supportive, and I can't thank them enough.
More good news - my daughter Annie is pregnant again,
expecting on November 12th! We don't know yet what sex the baby
is, and we'll all be thrilled either way. I always wanted girls,
but I have to say that having Hayden has turned me around
completely. I am so wildly in love with that little boy, it's
ridiculous. Everything he says and does delights me, and I
absolutely love spending time with him. The idea that I might
not see him for a whole month is almost too painful to bear.
He's almost 2 1/2 now, and just the sweetest thing ever.
I'm going to end this letter for now. I know it's a bit brief,
but I really haven't done much the past three weeks other than
keep everybody in the know about Warren, and frankly, I'm just
plain tired of writing emails. So hopefully the next time you
hear from me - which might not be until the end of June - I'll
have lots of nothing but good news to report. Thanks for your
patience. Hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day. And please be
extra careful when you're in the bathroom.
Warmly,
Joy