Friday, 01 Oct 1999
Dear Assumption friends....
I just got back from Kansas City this evening after a stay with Rachel that lasted about a week, with one ten hour visit to Topeka by us both on Wednesday/Thursday. Diana saved the newspaper article and recorded the Topeka TV news spot about the hamburger fry Assumption Church/School held to help us pay for medical expenses for Rachel and me to see. Once again... what more can we say but Thank you. Diana and I
are especially proud of the way Emily got involved in the preparation and activities involved with the hamburger fry.
Rachel is still a bit bewildered by all of this attention. She wants to know what's going on but doesn't yet like talking about leukemia and gets very quiet when people ask her about it... so she was attentive but
silent during the news story and as the article was read to her. But we find that very understandable.
She's asked me some very hard questions this past week as she comes to grips with her changed life. But after every heavy moment she has come through with that steely, positive determination telling me twice that she plans on being an old lady of 92 some day with her grandchildren coming over to her house for cookies and chocolate milk.
While we were home Wednesday she made me go through with my promise to shave off my hair after she'd started chemo... I now look like a very scarey, something like an overweight skinhead/biker librarian. Rachel started howling when I showed my head to her. She insists that the moles (and I have a lot of them)
on the right side of head look like the Big Dipper. Yesterday and today at the hospital she called in any staff who stopped by to show them my head... and my "constellation." She's definitely got that Sowers sense of humor that Diana had hoped would skip at least one of her children.
The hospital has a great psychology program for kids with chronic/acute illnesses. Since Rachel has such a low immune system she can't come out of her room so they bring activities into the room for her to do. They
also work with overwrought, on-the-edge parents too!
The hospital teacher is helping us to keep Rachel on a slow but steady pace through the worksheets supplied by Assumption School.(thank you, Miss Totten!). The teacher, certified through the Kansas City Mo School District, is another blessing supplied by Children's Mercy and the surrounding community.
That's about it.
Bill Sowers
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