11:11 a.m., Feb. 19, 2005

Mom wouldn't let me take a picture of her, but did permit me to snap a photo of the flowers her aunt and godmother sent several days ago.

I sat with her over three hours yesterday but we hardly talked. She read a Reader's Digest and tried to sleep. This is what she does to distract herself from discomfort. Her torso feels tight, she says. She had had such a sharp and intense pain first thing in the morning that she was afraid to move for the rest of the day.

I read, too, sitting next to her bed. Once when she was snoring lightly I went down to the gift shop and bought her a new crossword book and two kinds of fudge. "You're spoiling me," she said, unwrapping the candy, "but why not, eh?"

***

The two little boychiks are gone with their dad and my van this weekend, and our big boychik arrived from Calgary yesterday morning and will be here all week. I walked into the living room around 8 o'clock last night and this is what I saw:

I had to chuckle at the two sleepyheads. Neither of them noticed, of course, so I went to get the camera.

***

Today we're cooking up an elk roast and having company for supper, and I'll be going down to see Mom for a while. Dad rented a TV so she can watch the curling, which means she won't have much to say to me anyway, even if she is physically comfortable. But I'll still go check in.

***
2:45 p.m. update

Mom is no longer in pain, but has only an ache. That is an improvement and I'm notifying you immediately so that you readers who are friends and relatives of Mom's can stop worrying. If all goes well, she'll go home Monday after her fifth radiation treatment.

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