Michael here in Stephenville.  I haven’t been getting near enough sleep, so I spent most of the afternoon crashed in bed catching up on some desperately needed zzzz’s…  I would probably still be there except that it was pointed out to me that my hastily written post today had a gross omission in it.  GINA was not at the get-together last Friday night, and I simply omitted her.  We have been communicating via blog comments so much that I really did not think about her not being there.  I left Brandi and Jon out also, but I got to see Brandi Sunday (and she is doing GREAT as an occupational therapist at Baylor Medical Rehab Center.  I praise Jon on here to high heaven constantly, and all of them know how incredibly proud I am of them.  I am trying to go to sleep again, but I did want to correct my error.

Michael in Stephenville.  We had an incredible conversation with Lorena last night.  It has been quite awhile since we have had a chance to visit with her because she is always in therapy when we call.

Last night, however, not only was she free — but she was in wonderful spirits.  Socorro answered the phone, and Lorena’s nurse Roberto served as moderator for the conversation.  He is fantastic.  We filled Lorena in on everything that has been going on around here — to the accompaniment of much laughter.  There were some tears, but only when I mentioned some of you specifically.  Lorena misses you badly.

The best part of the visit was when I told Lorena to hurry and get well so she could come back home and we would have that huge party everyone wants to be part of.  She was affirming everything well, but when I mentioned that everyone would be there — and they would all be wanting to dance with her, I got a beautiful laugh in response.  Then I said that Roberto and the other nurses would be there as well, and she would have to dance with them.  Roberto started teasing Lorena about dancing with them, and she laughed wondrously once again.  It is amazing how uplifting and soul-gladdening a laugh can be!!!

I passed on all the news about the family, graduation, happening around here, and tons of greetings from friends, colleagues, and family members.  She cried especially hard when I relayed her greetings from Kay and Bill Black, Delise Burrus, Jerome and Ruth, Barbara and Bill, all my siblings, and from Duane and Nony Godwin.

Friday was great.  We had the Stephenville High School Graduation in the TSU stadium.  When we practiced at 1:00 in the afternoon, it was hotter radio talk show rhetoric.  However, when the ceremony started at 8:00 p.m., the weather was perfect.  Lorena and I had two relatives in the graduating class.  Jennifer Schwartz (Diane’s daughter) and Zachary Thomas (Steve’s son) both stepped, papered, out into the wide, wide world.  I will have to get some pics on here of them.  Zach will be playing football at SMU this fall.

Barbara and Bill Hudgins had driven up from Brownwood for the ceremony.  After I finally made it back home, we went to a reception for Jenni and Zach at Steve’s and Julie’s house.  Melanie had come up from Waco, so, for the first time since Christmas, all of us but Christy and Dale were together.  Needless to say, we had a fantastic evening.

Saturday night, then, Diane and Phil were having a brisket (and brew masters’ meeting) at their place, so they invited us over for another wonderful meal and visit.  Monday, Dena and Craig had us out at their place for fajitas and ANOTHER wonderful evening.  I am becoming so unwound that I may NEVER be able to gear back up to get anything done.

Kay Black enjoyed our snake sagas, so she sent me the following photo from Abilene, Texas.  [Note the mesquite bean in the left foreground and the nopal (cactus pad) in the right foreground.]  Folks who have not been around rattlesnakes probably don’t understand what we mean by a rattlesnake den, but they do congregate in great numbers where there is plenty of food and protection.  Enjoy.  (I would say that this pic is not for the squeamish or those with fear of snakes, but it is too late now…)  [I will dedicate this pic to Kerri Everett and Marly Cole.]  This was prefaced by the following info:

 Patterson Drilling yard, Abilene, TX.  [A drilling yard is where equipment, oil storage tanks, etc., are kept until they are needed.]  Doing some cleanup around the yard, a forklift driver picked up a “pit” (10 ft by 10 ft by 30 ft), immediately set it back down and called the office saying, ”I need some people out here with shotguns”.  Three men showed up armed and ready as he picked the pit up again.  Beneath the pit was a den of Western diamond back rattlesnakes.  [I guess that would make it a pit of pit vipers pit -- and that is the pits...]  As least as many snakes got away as were killed — 62. I wonder if they taste like chicken? LOL

I thanked Kay for the picture, to which she responded:  

Michael in Stephenville.  Stephenville graduation day is over and done — thank God.  The day started off insanely and only got more frantic and frenetic as the day went on.  Lindsay, from Jacksboro, had her car with a radiator that leaked worse than Bonnie and Clyde at the end of their careers, and she could not contact her parents.  Friday morning, she  followed me over to the radiator repair shop where we watched as Robert the Raidator Guy pressurized her radiator to produce a pencil sized stream of coolant from a equal sized hole in her radiator.  Robert offered to order a radiator for her, but, with it being Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, he would not be able to put the new radiator on before next Tuesday.  Lindsay was okay with the $222 price tag.  I sounded Robert out for options since Lindsay lives 1.5 hours north of here, and she was planning to go home this weekend.

Robert said the only way  he could get it repaired earlier would be if we could somehow get a radiator from Fort Worth (an hour away).  I got on the phone and finally got in touch with Crystal Woerner who in turn got in touch with her sweet thing (Hadley Woerner) who works at Frost Bank in Fort Worth.  He quickly agreed to sacrifice by leaving work early to guarantee that Robert the Radiator Guy receive the radiator by 4:30 in the evening.  Several phone calls and emails later, all the details were arranged, and I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

At 4:00 p.m., I received an email from Hadley that he was at Bluff Dale and would have the radiator in Stephenville by 4:15.  At 4:20 I called Robert who verified for me that Murphy’s Law has not been rescinded.  Some idiot in the Radiator Repair Supply in Fort Worth had “gotten down on the wrong line and sent the wrong radiator.”  He would get the correct radiator and install it Tuesday.  (I wondered what sort of guarantee I had that the incompetent in Fort Worth would somehow luck out and send the correct radiator Tuesday. 

Just now Lindsay has come in and informed me that her very upset father has had some choice (unrepeatable) words for her for breaking her radiator and said he would be in shortly to pick up her car.  Since she obviously is much too irresponsible to be driving a car as proven by having a radiator leak, she will not be getting the car back after it is repaired.  She is SOOOO happy.  Furthermore, he told her that he would not pay for any parts or repairs that she had had done, so I guess I owe the idiot in Fort Worth an apology.  Apparently he is not the only idiot running around…  I really feel for some of these kiddos…

I will tell you about the graduation tomorrow…

Michael here in Stephenville, running circles and screaming frantically.  I am here at school in the middle of the night getting the last of my grades in — because I have been running circles and screaming frantically all day.

Stephanie’s friend Lindsay drove in from Jacksboro only to have her car die over on the other side of town.  When Steph called me here at school and asked me to come home and take care of Lindsay’s car, I immediately polished my halo, rushed outside and jumped on (or rather in) my trusty steed (my ’78 Pinto) [that has no AC so that in today's upper 90 (both in degrees Fahrenheit and in per cent humidity) doubles as both transportation device and sauna.]  I carried the girls over to the dead car, looked it over without detecting any critical problems, started it up, then had Lindsay drive it home as I followed in my trusty steed.

As the girls dressed for their soiree tonight, I checked the car out.  No water…  Hmmm…  Not good.  I filled the radiator with water and coolant, started it up and let it run long enough for the thermostat to kick in — then watched as coolant fled the heat around the collar of her radiator.   Hmmm…  Really not good…  In the morning, I get to run her over to the radiator place to see if we can get her back on the road again…  (Thanks, Willie…)

Then I got an email from Supaporn Netrmanee.  The idiot at the University is adding insult to injury by jerking her around some more.  She applied to work at the University, but he has had her work permit canceled — along with her student visa, and she was desperately needing a US citizen to sponsor her.  That is why I have been writing sponsorship letters and running off copies of my bank statement (which makes me very uncomfortable…)  Just call me paranoid.  Only Supaporn has the right to be paranoid…

The great thing is that I will get to call Lorena when I get home.  It will be wonderful to get to hear her laugh again.  Sometimes life seems so incredibly  hard and difficult to bear.  But then I get to hear Lorena — or the girls — laugh, or I get to remember Lorena and the girls laugh.  I will always remember Lorena and Stephanie laughing like fools and chasing each other through the house the night before Lorena’s stroke.  That memory, and others like it, allowed me to keep my sanity through the really rough times.

Lorena’s miracle continues, and each time I tell someone else how she is doing, I realize anew just how far she has progressed and how blessed we are.  To God be the glory…

Michael at school.  I am frantically trying to get all my stuff finished at school, giving finals, cleaning out my room since I will be teaching a completely new area of study next year.  (Surely there are not many of us who are certified to teach English, history, math, and science (and ESL).  It makes one very employable, but it also causes one to bounce around quite often to cover those hard-to-fill positions.  [My current situation is still not bad.  My hardest year was teaching 8 preparations in a 6 period day along with being UIL coordinator, coaching UIL number sense, calculator, mathematics, science, editorial writing, news writing, feature writing, and headline writing, directing Talented and Gifted, and being senior sponsor.  I get tired just remembering it -- and I know Lorena remembers it!!!]

I have been a faculty representative (i.e. guard) at graduation for the  past three years, so this year I was reveling in the fact that I would not have to do that again.  Then Karen Koonsman retired.  Drat darn it!!!  I will miss K².  She is frantically working to get her room cleaned out, and she lives about an hour north of here, so I volunteered to take her assigned graduation guard duty for her.  Today, I got to sit in a glorious meeting on how to do our assignment without harming any animals, and I received Karen’s robe and collar.  (Oh, wait; that thing is called a hood, isn’t it?  The animals wear the collars…)  I figure her robe will strike me just below my cute little chubby behind-cheeks, so that should be interesting.   I made a comment about perhaps not wearing anything under my robe — and half the faculty threatened to go home sick…

A short time later, I received a breathless call from Lorraine.  (Actually, there was a LOT of breathing.  In fact, that was almost all I could hear for awhile.)  She, Stephi, and Mrs_Tiggy_Winkle were doing some cleaning and rearranging in the garage when she opened a box containing some Harry Potter games, some other odds and ends, and a really cute toy snake.  Just about the time she saw the toy snake, it started rattling.  [As she tells it, "I saw the snake and thought, 'Wow!  What a neat little toy snake!  But before I could reach down and pick it up, it started rattling.  I just let the lid on the box fall back down, yelled, 'Snake!' and ran.  I called the police and told them, and they are sending an officer, but I just wanted you to know that we found a rattlesnake in the garage."  That is a call that will get your adrenalin going!]   (Michigan Marly was impressed with the way that Rainey handled the situation, but she claims that she outran Lorraine as they exited the garage…)

I have never seen a rattler here in town, but that is certainly not to say that they are not here.  I know there will be rattlers on the outskirts of town, at least.  Anyway, I briefly told everyone at school why I was running away on my way out to the car and home.  The animal control officer was already at our house with the boxed prize sitting out under the carport.  I was instantly reminded of opening a big Cracker Jacks box with nothing edible inside but a toxic reptile that doubled as the prize…  I opened the box, he pulled out a couple of Harry Potter games with his snake tongs — and we discovered a lovely, TERRIFIED, two-foot-long chicken snake.  Its vibrating tail on the side of the box made a most impressive rattler-like buzz.

I tried to get the officer to let me keep the snake to show Lya, but he explained that since he had caught it, he would be liable legally if anyone got hurt by it, so he was going to release it outside of town.  I got a cloth and wiped the chicken snake urine off the box as the ladies present told me how scared THEY had been.  (None of them had to clean up, so I know that they were nowhere near as scared as that snake was.)

Lorraine, Stephi, and Marly all had to tell me, very excitedly and animatedly,  how the serpentine story had unwound.  Stephi pointed out the irony of the snake being in a box with Harry Potter books — and I was booed when I pointed out that it was especially ironic that it was ”slitherin’” [Slytherin] around in the box.  [I did not dare, then, tell them that I had licked a couple of horse-barns-full of envelopes at school -- so perhaps I could have spoken "Parcel-tongue" to the snake.  I held my tongue, though, because I was obviously in a hostile crowd that would not appreciate my incredible wit...]

Rainey then informed me of how many chicken snakes they have shot at Dublin this last week.  I chewed (figuratively) on her for a moment for shooting snakes, but she said the snakes were wreaking havoc on their egg and chick population.  I had precipitated this discussion by saying that I wish I had kept the snake in the garden, so I pointed out to Lorraine that I had no eggs or chicks to worry about.  Stephi then chided me by reminding me about living with several CHICKS about whom I should worry because they WOULD BE GONE IF SNAKES WERE ABOUT…

Of course, I had to correct her.  As best I could tell, judging by what I had seen at the scene, I live with several BIG CHICKENS!!!  (Pwa-a-a-wk!  Pok pok pok…)

Rainey then started telling us about the skunks, possums, coons, and snakes that she has shot under Jeremy’s guidance.  (Remember that that is my little debutante who asked me how to get blood off her high heels after she dressed out a deer in prom gear.  (SHE was in the prom gear.  The dear was NOT wearing a prom dress although, logically, I guess Rainey UNDRESSED the deer…  Sometimes, the language simply does not suffice…)

This caused the conversation to move on to the 12 foot alligator that someone poached in Lake Lewisville this last weekend — and the fact that Lya is afraid of alligators being in Lake Tyler (which I am sure there are.)  Then Stephanie started telling Miss Marly and Alisha about fifty foot gars that will eat you up, and Rainey told us about a huge, ferocious, man-eating salamander that had been discovered in China.  The poor Michiganders were looking a mite out-of-sorts by now.  (Marly discovered yesterday why fire ants are called fire ants — and she is ready to believe the grossest exaggerations.  And most of our exaggerations truly are gross.)

Lorena would love it.  She always thought the girls and me a bit crazy when we would catch snakes and play with them…  I am not sure what happened to my little tomboys.  Somehow, they metamorphosed into young Thomas ladies…  Now, of THAT, Lorena would be proud…  I have no idea where I went wrong!!!!  I only know that Lorena did all right…

Michael here in Stephenville.  Today has been very emotional for many reasons.  I will not be in this school room next year, so I am having to clear everything out for the first time since I started working here in 2000.  Everywhere I turn I find reminders of Lorena.  We teachers are milling around and bumping into each other much more than we normally do — and it seems that each one asks if there is any updates on Lorena. 

I am going to post some emails that I have received for Lorena. 

In response, Jonathan wrote: 

We are so blessed.  Each time we call, I pass such messages along to Lorena and remind her of how much she is loved and missed by so many people.  Each time, she cries (and I often join in because I hate for her to have to cry alone), and then we laugh.  So it should be with blessings.  They touch us so deeply — and make us feel so wonderful!!!  Thank you to all of you out there who support us so much.  You may not think of yourself as a blessing, but you are. 

Lorena, you ARE loved, and you ARE missed!!!  Work hard, Darling, and GET WELL!!!

We just completed a FANTASTIC call to Lorena.  She was in fine form.  The girls caught her up on all their doings, and then we passed on a seemingly endless bunch of greetings and messages from all you folks out there.  She was more vocal than normal, and she let us know that she loved hearing from all of you and she loves to get your phone calls, Duane.

Norma and Thomas, she was delighted to hear about your baby.  Judy Kennerly, Mike and Debbie, Jonathon Hutson, Diana Locke, Diane, Gina, Jerome and Ruth, David, Betty and Ronnie, Amauri:  she was especially excited to hear your news or greetings.  Sandra (Pricer), she was glad to hear that you have remarried — and we want to know the particulars!!!!  Congratulations!!!  Walter will be happy!!!

Toward the end of our conversation, the nurse began saying “No” repeatedly, passing on to us what Lorena was saying.  I told her I love her. 
“No!” 
“Yes, I do!!!  I love you more than you can know!!!”
“No!”
No matter what we would say, she would say, “No.”
I then asked her if she was teasing us — and got the most wonderful, true to the pre-stroke-Lorena-Laugh that I have heard in over two years.  She was just playing with us and having fun.  Loudly.  I started whooping and hollering, congratulating her, and telling her how wonderful it makes me feel to hear her laughing like that and to hear her wonderful sense of humor again — and she continued laughing.  She is obviously doing MUCH better.than she was!!!  Her miracle continues!!!  To God be the glory!!!!  I believe with all my heart that she will be back…

Some of my ancestors [Holder, TX, 1930's]:  My G-grandmother Mary
Elizabeth Dalton Thomas (cousin to the Dalton brothers who got shot to
ribbons trying to rob the banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, and related by
marriage to the Younger brothers), G-grandfather James Hardy (Jim)
Thomas, Grandfather Otis Dewey Thomas, Grandmother Flossie Jane Jones
Thomas, my father Otis Wayne Thomas (youngest), Desmond Thomas (died of
Marfan’s Syndrome when I was a baby), Dorothy Thomas Thomas. 
(Even though Dot’s surname did not change when she married, only Mary
Dalton Thomas was born in Arkansas [1868] (LOL).  Far right was a
Thomas cousin from Georgia where Jim Thomas was born. 

Hillman Thomas (of a different group of Thomases.)  I told Uncle
Hill  I had to post this one.  It will make him so proud!!!

Dorothy Thomas playing in the front yard during the Great Depression.

Thomas family:  Dorothy, Gerald, Hill, Ronald, Hilda, James.

1973 Thomas photo at Holder Baptist Church (where Lorena and I were
married here in the States):  Hilda, Aunt Dot, James, Uncle Hill,
Gerald.

Michael and the girls back in Stephenville.  Once again, we did
not get to talk to Lorena last night, but last night the fault was our
own because we did not get back to Stephenville until the early morning
hours.  The anniversary celebration was wonderful, and it made me
once again rejoice and give thanks for the family into which I was
born.  Our daughters were, as always, gracious and beautiful, and
the fellowship and hilarious reminisces rejuvenated me.  I could
feel tension and stress drain away.  Laughter truly is a
miraculous medicine.  The only thing lacking to make it a perfect
day was the absence of Lorena.  However, she was absent only in
the corporeal sense because she was certainly present in all our hearts
and minds.  Everyone asked about her, gave me messages to pass on
to her, and shared memories about her.  We love you, Lorena, and
you are sorely missed.

Dorothy and Hill are both looking wonderful.  Hill has his
black eyed peas and oats planted.  He said he doesn’t have any
watermelons or cantaloupes  planted yet, but I am sure he
will.  I will always think of him in one of two ways.  Every
night that I spent over at their house, I knew that no matter how early
we kids got up the next morning, Hill would be sitting in the kitchen
in his old slat-backed chair leaned back against the wall, drinking
coffee and listening to KBWD radio.  The other huge memory context
in my mind for Uncle Hill is the Poppin’ Johnny.  I always thought
he had had that ancient John Deere tractor since time began.  Dad
had an old International Harvestor Co. Farmall tractor and a little old
Ford tractor, so that was what I was used to listening to at
home.  Grandpa Smith let Ryan and me drive his little Ford
tractor, so that reinforced that “tractor sound” for me. 
But  in my memory, the counterpoint to most of my  play
with  Ronnie and Gerald was  the  irregular stacatto of
the ol’ Poppin’  Johnny down in the sand field at the back of the
pasture.  Those were some wonderful days.  He raised the best
watermelons (yellow meated) that I ever ate…

Yesterday, it struck me again that the folks I know and love, the folks
I grew up with, are the backbone of the US, and they are what make it
the nation it is.  Good, kind, decent, hard-working,
uncomplaining:  I find it a daily challenge to live up to the
legacy that they have left me.  I pray that I can honor them and
do justice to the tasks they and their ancestors bequeathed me. 
If I am, somehow, able to approximate the kind of people they were, I
will be a man among giants.  World War I, the Great
Depression,  World War 2, Korea, Vietnam:  the men who
volunteered or were drafted served honorably and valiently while those
who were left behind worked doubly hard to keep the farms and ranches
going, and the women pitched in and worked side by side with the men in
the fields even as they did double duty cookin’, cleanin’, and
mamma-in’.  I find myself falling incredibly and woefully short
when I compare myself to them.  Dot and Hill,  Jerome and
Ruth Smith, Wanda and Dean Singleton, Doris and Divern Wheeler:  I
amazed at the quality of the people who shaped my character.
 
Ronald and Betty were there, as were Gerald, Ginger, and William. 
Ronnie and I were inseparable growing up, and Gerald and Steven were
usually playing with us or nearby.  We had a ton of laughs as we
talked over the old days.  Lorena really liked Ronnie and Betty,
and we had planned to spend more time with them after her graduation,
so they had innumerable questions about her condition.

Hilda, Harmon, Thomas and Josh foster were there, as was Thomas’s wife
Norma, their son, Norma’s mother and sister, and Josh fiancee. 
Norma is Latina, and she and Lorena very quickly became extremely close
after she and Thomas married.  Again, we had planned to visit them
often after they moved to Brownwood and he became a drug dealer there
(as the hospital pharmacist… *teehee*)   Lorena will be
tickled when she learns that Norma is expecting again.

Wanda and Dean Singleton,  Doris and Divern Wheeler, and so many
others.  It really was uplifting to see everyone again.

James and Laverne, Cindy, and David were all missing.  I would
really like to have seen them.  They are doing well, and they are
all still in the birds business, breeding and raising parrots,
parakeets, cockatoos, cockatiels, lovebirds, you name it.  Here at
home, all I can raise are cuckoos and looney birds…  [Gotcha,
girls!!!]

The highlight of the evening (other than seeing everyone), was when one
of the guests, upon being introduced to Gerald (who has long hair and
beard and looks like some Western desperado) misunderstood that he was
Hill’s father, whereupon he was congratulated for having such a fine
son (Hill) and daughter-in-law (Dorothy).  I was afraid Hilda was
going to hurt herself laughing…

Afterwards, we did a little nature tour — and found the most
incredible inch worm I have ever seen.  I had picked some new
growth off a briar to eat — but there was a dead, curled-up leaf on
it.  I tried to pick the leaf off, only to find that it was an
ingeniously camouflaged inch worm.  It literally looked like an
old, curled up, dried leaf.  Later, then, on the drive on over to
Jerome and Ruth’s, I stopped to get a tortoise out of the middle of the
highway lest we recreate the opening scene of The Grapes of Wrath. 
I sat Mr. Tortoise off the road in the direction he had been traveling
– and he promptly turned around and headed back up onto the
highway.  Deciding he was either suicidal, crazy, or had been
eating funny mushrooms, I carried him on over to Jerome and Ruth’s
house where I released him out in the pasture.

We had a great time at Jerome and Ruth’s.  They are among my
favorite people in the world — and Lorena loves them dearly.  We
had a great visit, and then they drove us an hour out just south of
Abilene to Buffalo Gap to eat at a fantastic ranch restaurant.  We
got back to their house at about 1:30 a.m. — and headed back to
Stephenville at about 3:00 a.m.  It was a WONDERFUL visit.

Supaporn Netremanee and Gaurav Gupta just dropped supper off for
us!!!  Amid much bowing and scraping (and hugging and laughing),
she delivered a huge pot of Phad Preaw Hwan and a smaller dish of Peak
Kao Pod (with jack fruit, chestnut, corn, and apple.)  It is
DELICIOUS!!!!  Needless to say, I will not need to eat again for
about a week. 

We will try Lorena again in a few minutes and let you know what we
discover.  We will be going down sometime this summer, but we are
not sure just when that will be.  Take care.  We love you
all….

Michael and the girls here in Stephenville.  We have tried to call Lorena several times this week, but each time we have found her in therapy, usually speech therapy with Blanca, and it has been so late that we would simply leave greetings for her with whomever answered the phone and tell them that we would try again the next day.  It is very frustrating not to be able to speak with her — even as it is simultaneously exhilirating knowing that she is receiving extensive therapy AND GETTING BETTER!!!  We will try to speak with her again tonight…  We have our collective fingers crossed…

It is so WONDERFUL to see more of you making comments on here to Lorena.  She will be tickled to hear from Mike and Debbie Odell and Amauri and Barbara Martinez.  Please, if you have special greetings for Lorena, want to update her on what is going on in your life, or would like to share memories with her (and put them on the record) PLEASE CREATE A XANGA ACCOUNT AND MAKE COMMENTS.  This is both a conduit to Lorena and a historical account of the life she is missing as she recuperates.  She misses her friends and relatives not in the Tepic area bitterly, and this is a way to maintain contact with her.  Just click JOIN at the top of this page, create a user I.D. and a password (one of your email ID’s will probably work to keep it simple) — and talk to her.  We intend this to be a written history for her and for the rest of us.

Mike and Debbie Odell are wonderful folks, and Lorena loved visiting with them.  They were high on our list of people to spend more time with after she had finished her schooling, and they have faithfully kept up with her progress throughout this ordeal.  As well as being a colleague at Stephenville High School, Mike manages an exotic game ranch outside Dublin, and Lorena loved driving through their pastures and watching their bizarre and stunning menagerie.  She will cry when I read their message to her, but it will be a good cry.

Lorena had also wanted to get to know Amauri Martinez better — and she would LOVE Barbara Martinez.  Amauri was a paisano from Mexico who had come to Texas as a child, become a US citizen, and who teaches computer at SHS.  Lorena found a kindred spirit in him and identified closely with him.  He married his beautiful wife Barbara, who hails from Mexico City, after Lorena suffered her stroke.  Were Lorena here, I suspect that she and Barbara would now be very, very close because they are so very similar.  Again, she will cry when I read your greetings to her, Amauri and Barbara, but it will be a wonderful cry and sweet tears.  Thank you so much.

I was supposed to go over this evening to work with Amauri and Barbara on some math for the GRE they are both to take Saturday, but they were both in a meeting until late.  Consequently, I have to go over tomorrow night to help them — and to eat tinga.  Lorena will cry when I tell her about this, but only because she will be laughing so hard.  The last time I ate tinga, authentically prepared by a Chilango (person from Mexico City), Lorena said I looked like a tall, skinny Christmas light bulb because she said my head was glowing.  All I know is that the tinga was excellent, but I feared for awhile that my mouth was literally going to catch fire.  (I know how Joan of Arc felt at the end…)  Have mercy, Barbara!!!  I experienced a tingaling sensation in my mouth for a couple of days after that last experience…

We are well. 

We just tried Lorena; she is in therapy — and will be for another hour or so.  Therefore, we are going to bed, and we will try again tomorrow night.  Remember that if we call too early in the evening, she is often on a ride in the van.  Later she will be in therapy with Carlos or with Blanca, both of whom work with her after their regular jobs so that they come at no set times.  However, we will be able to talk to her again one of these days, and we will update you then.  The important thing is that her miracle continues.  To God be the glory!!!

Dena sent me the following link, and I would to send it — with my sincere best wishes — to all of you.  You are all so incredibly special to us, and I would like to verify the statements that your thoughts are touching Lorena, me and our family, shaping and shaking our world.  Thank you.  May you be blessed!!!

http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com/