GET WELL SOON!!

The pictures speak for themselves, showing how cheerful you are in the company of your family, especially grandchildren. Together with your family and friends, we also pray for your quick recovery so you can return healthy and continue to enjoy a long fun life with everyone. Your daughter has been doing a tremendous job keeping us informed of your progress towards recovery and your other “hospital adventures” (do you get to pinch the nurses?). Our plans were to come visit you next Sunday, but, per Suzia’s posting, looks like we may have to postpone that. You and Daniella are in our thoughts and we know that you will beat this thing just like any of the other challenges you faced in life so far.

Special request - No more visitors

I spoke with Daniella this morning. She said Stefan has requested no more visitors till after he's done with the chemo. It was very taxing, and he was tired to begin with. So, they asked that I pass on this information, so those that may have planned on going to see him this week could change their plans.
Cards are appreciated. Phone calls too - Daniella has her cell phone on in the room. But visits will have to wait for a while. Thank you to all who've visited Stefan at NMH. When he's feeling better and willing to have visitors again, Daniella will let me know. Until then, Stefan has asked that his visitors be limited to his immediate family (wife and kids), but still excluding his grandchildren. Though he loves his grandkids with all his heart, he just doesn't want them to see him tired, weak, and suffering, because they're still too young to understand.
He hopes everyone can respect his wishes about visitors, and he looks forward to returning home where visits can be both more frequent and more comfortable.

Stefan and Daniella, Sunday 9/11/05 (photo)

Okay - last picture from Sunday. Daniella's staying strong. I know they will both get through this, and come out stronger for it.

For now, it's enough that she doesn't break down crying every other minute, and for that, I'm thankful.

And, YES... I have been told the date on my camera is wrong. We went out of town on Saturday and when I took the camera out to use it, it was on. Apparently, it got jostled in my bag and the date got set back five days. All these pictures posted today were indeed taken yesterday, Sunday, September 11th, 2005. The date stamped on them is wrong - please ignore it. Thanks.

Get better soon, Popsie (photo)

It's hard not to be able to hug him now. Squeezing his hand "good bye" just isn't enough. But it's all that we can do right now, till after the chemo is finished later this week.

It's going to be a long week, I think.

A great big smile (photo)

That grin stayed on his face the whole time he was with the grandkids...

And seeing how he didn't mind the picture-taking yesterday, I snapped one of just him. It may be a while before he feels up to par, and as his energy level drops and the chemo gets to him, he's not going to want any pictures taken. [At least none that he'll allow me to post.]

I just thought the picture Daniella posted Saturday made him look worse than he was. He was in the middle of blinking, and was chewing food, so his cheeks looked all puffy and swollen, and his eyes were half shut. He did look good (for a man in the hospital, going thru chemo) over the weekend. He looks like himself, only you can see that he gets tired quicker than before. So I wanted to post a more "positive" picture of him, and what's more positive than a smile?!

How'dya do... times three (photo)

The kids got to put gloves on to shake Dziadzia's hand... the closest they could get to hugging him. And boy oh boy... what a smile that put on his face!

Picture from yesterday's visit (photo)

I promised a few pictures from our visit yesterday. Here's one of the 5 of us, standing next to his bed. This was towards the end of the afternoon, after he'd had quite a few visitors. He was tired and worn out.