Family sing-along
La’s pancakes
Diana, Laura, Linnea, John, Rosalie, Bink and Daniel
Andy, Micah and Indigo chez Pastor
Poolside
Laura and Binky lounging on the dock
John and Amanda zipping around on a jet ski
Hale snags a big one
On Friday, the 3rd of May, I flew to Austin. It was an early morning flight, and I’d had my infusion of alimta the previous day. I needed sleep more than conversation and thought this might be a good time to play up my status as a cancer patient in treatment, (as well as to avoid any viruses my fellow passengers might be harboring) so I donned a mask for both legs of the flight. With my knit cap and a scarf wrapped around my neck, I was pretty cozy. Best of all, I actually slept.
So what on earth would compel me to fly the day after chemo? Well, nothing less than a sibling reunion. For the first time in fourteen years, all seven of us were going to be in the same place at the same time—at the home of Laura and her husband Andy in Austin. My brother Daniel and his wife Micah flew in from Alaska with their new baby girl, Indigo. Rosalie, who is pregnant with her second child, had planned to bring her husband Brian and son Magnus, who came down with a fever the night before. So Rosalie came solo, but on the same flight as my sister Bink and brother John and his fiancee Amanda. Diana drove down from Waco, and by Friday night we were all assembled.
Although I had to forgo the hot sun, margaritas and jet skiing, I was more than happy to just hang out. Plus, I did wrangle more than my fair share of baby holding time: Indigo and I are now fast friends. And I had a chance to have meaningful conversations with every family member (including Laura and Andy’s three sons; Max, Hale and Eli). A surprising highlight of the weekend was a spirited game of Taboo. I’ve had a life long allergy to board games (or ‘bored games’ as I like to say). As a child, I would amuse myself by cheating (ask brother John), but aside from an occasional game of scrabble, I’ve had no interest in games as an adult.
However, May 4th was Diana’s birthday and she wanted to play games. Binky wouldn’t let me worm out of it, so I was in: girls against boys. And you know what? It was so much fun. Taboo is a game where you draw a card with a word on it that you have to make your teammates guess. Below it are five words you cannot use while prompting them, and of course, they are the very words you want and need to say. I was so chemo-brained that I was hilariously inarticulate, but the psychic connection between me and Binky is yet strong, and somehow she managed to guess my words anyway (thanks for making me look good Bink).
Anyway, it was just a special, amazing time and we agreed to not let fourteen years go by before the next sibling reunion. I love you guys!
life and breath: outliving lung cancer 