On The First Day Of Christmas: Reflecting On A Year Of Unexpected Stress And Amazing Grace

This is still our favorite carol, sung here by the Indianapolis
Children's Choir and Youth Chorale.

This has been an eventful year for our family, with our 55th wedding anniversary in August, the death of my sister Fannie Mae in October, and my first ever series of major health issues this summer and fall.

Having planned to join a long prayer walk to promote giving for refugee relief, I had a checkup with my doctor in June to make sure it was OK for me to do this.

Everything checked out well, but while there I asked about a little nodule I'd been noticing next to my left ear. "Likely just a little cyst," he said, and agreed we should keep an eye on it but didn't think it was anything to worry about. More on that later.

Then in the weeks that followed I began to notice some unusual shortness of breath on my daily mile-long daily walks, so when I was at our local hospital with Alma Jean for one of her checkups, I made an appointment with a cardiologist. She in turn arranged for a stress test that revealed that something wasn't right, and a subsequent heart catheterization and echogram showed that one of my main descending arteries was totally blocked and another 70% blocked.

So very soon thereafter, on July 5, I had the first major (five hour) surgery of my life at the University of Virginia Medical Center in Charlottesville for a double heart bypass. But after only four days I was in full recovery mode, blessed with the good care of Alma Jean and some nurses who made regular visits to make sure I was doing OK.

The support of my great wife, our daughter and sons, and our house church family and other friends and colleagues during and after the surgery was a blessing beyond belief. Ironically, at the time I remember telling numerous people how thankful I was that with my heart problem there was clear and specific way to have it repaired, and that, unlike if I had a diagnosis like cancer, once treated it was over. Fixed. Done.

Little did I realize that all the while I actually did have a malignant tumor in my left parotid gland. It was my dermatologist who urged me to see my ENT specialist to have it checked out. A biopsy showed it to be benign, but when my surgeon removed it on November 21 it proved to be malignant after all. In the process, he also took out seven lymph nodes, four of which also harbored cancer cells.

So beginning January 9 I'm to have 5-6 weeks of radiation treatments just to make sure the cancer hasn't (or won't) spread elsewhere.

I'm blessed to be back at work half-time at the Family Life Resource Center as before, but with a very slight speech impairment due to some nerves to my mouth and tongue having been affected by the surgery. This will hopefully get better over time.

Brad, our oldest, continues to write and perform his music in Pittsburgh and elsewhere, along with tutoring a number of students in math and other subjects and helping with music at the Pittsburgh Mennonite Church. Brent is really liking his second year of work with Beck Builders, a local solar and general contractor and a member of his congregation, and daughter-in-law Heidi is busy doing beautiful drapes for local homes and institutions. Joanna has moved her family of three children into a home she purchased in Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester, NY, and just became a fully certified art teacher. And all six of our "well above average"(!) grandchildren, ranging in age from 8 to 14, are doing amazingly well. 😊

In all we're experiencing tons of gratitude for all of the faith, hope and love we've experienced from all the good people we're blessed to have in our lives, especially our family and members of the house church family we've been a part of for three decades. But next to our Great Physician and Good Shepherd, I've found in Alma Jean my greatest friend and best caretaker imaginable, a priceless gift of amazing grace.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among everyone of goodwill!