Page 68 - MLD Book

This was the occasion of yet another FALL, and this time the same leg got broken, and we again went through the whole Baptist East Hospital ordeal, followed by ECH. Surgery was the next day, and then a two week adventure highlighted by his getting up in the middle of the night and walking to the nurses station to ask where he was, having not yet even walked after surgery. That necessitated them moving him to another floor for more severe surveillance (without calling me who was home because he was in a double room and they wouldn’t let me stay overnight), and so when I went into his room the next day, a bald man was in his bed! This unpleasant series of adventures lasted until February 18, when he was moved to ECH. So what happened with the lecture listed for February 12? He insisted that I do it! We had many hours of rehearsal in the hospital before I felt comfortable doing it, but the preparations were the key, and it went fine. We even made a video of it for Melvin to see! (Those are still on the Melvin IPad, by the way,) It did impact the March lecture, which we decided not to do, but we pointed towards April. Actually April 9 turned out to be two days before the ECH reluctantly allowed him to be released, but we spirited him out just for the lecture and then had to get him back in the dead of night! HE DID THAT LECTURE TOO!!!! He came home for good on April 12, although the leg never did heal (nor did the infections that came with it) and we were stuck forever with the “damn” wheelchair. He could use a walker some, though, so that helped around the house.
Most of the people of Calvary never did really accept the fact that I had been fired or know why. Not sure I ever really did either. The realization that Jonathan was the problem surfaced more and more, and it was determined that I was never a problem in any regard except perhaps working too hard. So little by little, I got to start doing stuff again. And wanted to. Sandra Cherry was leading the pack in that regard, bless her, and she decided that Calvary still had to have a 2013 Lenten Recital Series. She lined up the artists herself, and I was asked to do the very first recital on February 20!!! She also managed to engineer that the Lenten Series would be in honor of us!!! There was a big article in the CJ to that effect, stating only in regard to why we weren’t there that we stepped down last year. It was also announced in that article that Eugene Lavery would be the next music director at Calvary, beginning April 7. Calvary had been hard at work with a committee trying to find the perfect replacement for me, making it a full time MUSIC ONLY position, and Lavery was the result of that effort. His wife, Sharon was and is a terrific musician. I will leave all other comments alone.
Although my own health is something I never talk about, having endured my whole childhood with my hypochondriacal mother, it did play an annoying part a couple o f times in 2013. The first was a routine trip to the dentist, where they took a routine blood pressure check. It was 204/102!!! They forced me to immediately go to Tom Blanford, who quickly got me on Lysinopril and within a week, all was well. I still need to take it though. I’d always had low BP, I thought, but guess all the stress had gotten to me and thank goodness they caught it. Stress also manifested itself at the end of October, when I came down with a nasty case of shingles that lasted a full nine weeks. At least it was on my back. Still itches from time to time in that spot! Stress caused both irritating conditions, I was told. I can see why! Enough on health!