December 28, 2021

 The week before Christmas was filled with last minute grocery shopping, cooking and preparations. Last year we spent Christmas alone due to the pandemic and this year, though covid still haunts us and the variants are raging, we were able to have Cindy’s family over. We had everyone here for Thanksgiving but other than that we have not enjoyed family in our home for months. It seems like a new experience in some ways as we all kept our masks on except when we ate. The family is so worried about making us sick when Tom’s immune system is somewhat compromised but we just use Chris Miller’s nasal spray, do our best and pray - a lot!

We decided to have our dinner on Christmas Eve and Cindy made potatoes, broccoli casserole and salad while we made the turkey, stuffing, yams, rolls, cider and cookies. It was delicious! Ross and Sarah had other family commitments that evening but Jack brought Sianne. Because we didn’t have our usual nativity as they had just done the nativity with Sianne’s family, Tom read the Christmas story. Sam took over Max’s role of eating the drumstick and did a fine job. Tom and I watched some Christmas TV after they all left. 

Everyone returned Christmas morning for brunch. Ross and Sarah arrived first in their PJs and Cindy, Paul, Sam, Jack and Sianne came shortly after. They had opened their gifts and had their family time prior to coming. Cindy had cooked the soufflé and I contributed the orange rolls. We had a nice time before they all left for other family appointments. Trevor, Rissa and Liza all FaceTimed us during the day. Trevor and family and Rissa and family were home for Christmas but Liza and her family were up at Big White celebrating with Ted and Alisa’s family while skiing. Justin and JayLynn were in Enterprise with the Holts and Max and Jacqui in Australia with the Banks. We love them all and wish we could be together but most often our arms just have to reach further theses days.

Christmas brought cold weather and snow which was very appropriate for the season. We have not had to shovel though as neighbors and others have done that for us. Ross was out Christmas morning in his lumberjack red onesie shovelling and that must of entertained the neighbors. We were then awoken Sunday morning by the three Sister missionaries asking to use our shovels to do some snow shovelling. They cleared snow from our driveway and walk and then carried on to shovel about nine more homes. We had cider ready for them when they finally finished. Church was cancelled due to the weather and we zoomed our one meeting. We were disappointed because we had three special musical numbers ready for the meeting but we had been blessed to have the three Nephite Sisters moving through our neighborhood going about doing good.

Cindy gave Tom her massage appointment today and it was our first time out driving in the snow. It was the Tesla’s first experience with snow. The appointment was at 8:00 am and we returned home in time to change and go to our weekly Temple session. The Temple was quiet due to the severe weather but it is always great to be there. As Elder Clayton said at the Temple dedication, “It is always a clear day in the Temple.”

December 21, 2021

 Max left for Australia on Tuesday, December 14th, was in quarantine for a few days after arrival and then was married to Jacqui Banks Monday, December 20 in a ceremony performed by her Stake Stake President. It was around midnight Sunday the 19th here and we and other friends and family were watching via “zoom”. Remarkable and wonderful! They looked so happy. It has been a long wait for them amidst covid restrictions but they have maintained a faithful, daily FaceTime courtship. They will certainly have a story to tell their grandchildren. We are so proud of Max and the direction his life has taken and he seems to be happy and grateful too. Bevan McMullin told Tom that Max was the best Branch Clerk the YSA has had. Max has also been serving in the Temple as an ordinance worker, working hard at his schooling in accounting and at his full time  job with John Layton.

Tom’s Doctor kindly arranges for  both Tom and I to receive our covid test to return to Canada. We have to have the test within 72 hours prior to our reentrance into the country. They just put the covid testing onto our already hefty tab. 

Tom seemed to do well thru the week and the Doctor seems to be pleased with his progress. We stay in touch with each other and the children each day we are separated. Last time they let him out Wednesday afternoon after his 48 hours of isolation was complete but we were disappointed this time when the 48 hour mark came and went without his release from the nuclear medicine area. He still had his IV shunt in his arm and we are not certain if that is what made the difference or not. We individually watched the funeral of David Day our British friend from our mission who died suddenly following a brief cancer diagnosis and two strokes. He is younger than us and he and his wife Sue have five children and thirteen grandchildren. I was glad we were able to connect via zoom and participate in that way. They were a lovely couple and he was serving as bishop when this happened. Tom was released Thursday morning and after our meeting with the doctor, we took a limo, Tom had arranged for, back to Frankfurt. It is an experience to drive on the Auto Baum. I don’t believe the fast lane has a speed limit. The driver was very kind and walked us and our luggage into the airport/train area and right into the hotel. 

Charmaine had already arrived from Salzburg and checked into the hotel before we got there. We met her in the lobby around dinner time and took her out to eat. It was her 19th birthday. Tom went back to our room afterward and I went with her to customer service to arrange for a wheelchair for Tom tomorrow both here in Frankfurt and when we arrive in Vancouver.  Charmaine also asked why she couldn’t checkin on line and they said it was because she had transferred flights and now owed around $700. This was very similar to what happened to Tom and I with our flight having been accidentally cancelled by the airline and our then having to pay $1400 for cancellation and rebooking fees. The fellow couldn’t explain Charmaine’s concerns to our understanding and she finally had to pay the $700. We met her again the next morning in the lobby and she stayed with us as we were escorted thru the handicap routes of the airport to our gate. It was nice to have her along with us and hopefully nice for her too. Paul picked us all up at the Vancouver airport and got us home.

We were weary but glad to be home. We received some snow the night we got home and our dear neighbor across the street shovelled for us. We attended our weekly Temple session and Tom served as the sealer Wednesday evening and I always attend with him. We have made two grocery runs to get ready for Christmas and been in touch with our children. Trevor is in search of a new job. With covid restrictions increasing again due to the spread of the new variant, we will just be able to have Cindy’s family for dinner on Christmas Eve. I was hoping we could have Jean and the girls too. We are all feeling the need to be face to face with others again and pray for relief from this pandemic.

December 14, 2021

 We are in Bad Berka, Germany again for Tom to receive his second Theranostic treatment. We were busy last week with visits with and to our Tom’s local doctors and for his zometa treatment on Wednesday. We attended the Temple on Tuesday and Tom worked the Wednesday evening shift as sealer and I went with him. I made more spiced almonds, did some needed shopping and we prepared and packed to go. On Thursday evening Cindy, Paul, Max and Jack came over to give us both blessings and for us to say goodbye to Max as he will leave for Australia while we are gone and we are uncertain when we will see him again. Tom had a board meeting with Chip Parson and others before we left regarding their medical mission plans for Mongolia.

Paul was to pick us up to drive us to the airport on Friday but called that Cindy and Jack had taken both cars. We quickly called our dear friend and neighbor Jean who was out shopping and she rushed home and kindly drove us out for our flight. We made it with some time to spare and with assistance for Tom at the airport. We were helped again in Frankfurt to and onto the train headed for Weimar. I rushed to pick up a few groceries at the airport train station so we could be better supplied with food on this trip. We also took extra food in our luggage. At Weimar we caught a cab to the Bad Berka ZentralKlinik. When we arrived we were informed that, due to covid, I could only be in the hospital for one hour a day and with no internet and that we could only stay in the hospital for a half hour that night. We quickly messaged our children and had a quick zoom meeting with the Erfurt Elders who had promised to meet with us that evening. They were two cute young men from Utah and Boise. We then retired to our guest room for a small meal and for the night. I felt much better prepared with food this time but was distressed about the direction she had given us concerning my time in the hospital and WiFi use.

We had our sacrament at the guest room Sunday morning and then went up to the hospital to register Tom, where upon receptionist invited me to go upstairs with him. We were shocked. We had expected that I would be rushed out of the hospital but instead we went upstairs together and Tom had his admission testing done and his hospital lunch. We were then able to spend time together in the nearby visitors’ room. The only way he and I can communicate, while he is there and in isolation following his treatments, is by FaceTime and the only way I can connect with the children is but texting or FaceTime and all of that occurs when I have access to WiFi which I can only have in the hospital as the guest room has none. The sever restrictions mentioned the night before didn’t seem to be in effect now and so I carried on with the most recent indicators given us and assumed that the evening receptionist from the night before was being a little too stringent.

Tom had his treatment and Monday afternoon. I arrived at the hospital in the morning and started communicating with him and messaging the children, sitting out of view of the multiple receptionists. I really think it is okay for international patients’ family members to be here. While keeping myself busy, Tom suddenly appeared in his pyjamas in front of me. He had been allowed to come downstairs before he became radioactive and meet with the pharmacist, so we did that together and then took him back upstairs. They gave him his treatment in the early afternoon and he was then on his drinking water excessively regime and a saline IV to flush the radioactivity out of him. I went back to the room to eat lunch and returned in the afternoon. I will continue this routine thru the week to breakup my time in the hospital up a little. I read my scriptures, listen to podcasts, message and FaceTime in the hospital and then listen to downloaded ebooks in the room and watch downloaded movies. It is lonely and Tom and I have a hard time being separated. Each time I walk back to the room, I turn at a certain lamppost and wave at him as he stands in his room window on the third floor and he watches me until I disappear near the forest on the far side of the parking lot.

On Tuesday Max left for Australia to be with Jacqui. They will be married next Monday civilly and hope to return soon for Tom to seal them and the family here to celebrate with them. Cindy arranged for a Christmas celebration for him on this past weekend and they went to the Temple together with Max and Jack early Tuesday before heading to the airport. He is off now on his long journey and new adventure.

Tom is now in isolation and as far as we know things are going well.

December 7, 2021

 This week has been filled with Christmas preparations, medical appointments, Temple service and visits. We leave for Germany on the 10th of December and we have been preparing for that as well.

 Tom’s blood tests were good this time with his PSA dropping to 1.4. His appointment with Dr. Jenicki was not as good as he was not too positive about possible treatment for Tom’s herniated disc. He says Tom’s two spinal nerves at disc point are in the same sheath and that situation would make surgery difficult. He told him to go ahead with massage therapy though. We were disappointed with our visit to the medical oncologist Dr. Suo as he didn’t seem as interested the Germany visit as Tom hoped he would be but Dr. Bahl our radiation oncologist seemed very interested and wants to see the report sent back with us from Germany. 

We attended the Temple once and served in the Temple twice or at least Tom served twice. I go with him on Wednesday evenings when he fills in for Br. Barrett as the sealer and I act as a patron. On our Saturday afternoon shift I was assigned to a living sealing. It took me awhile to realize that the elderly sister I was working with was Elnor McNaughton from the Vancouver Stake as she was using her maiden name and she is now almost 90 and in a wheelchair. She was being sealed to her deceased husband, a living son and a deceased son, her daughter-in-law sealed to her deceased parents and Elnor’s husband sealed to his parents. I kept saying it would be so nice for Tom to do this sealing as he had been Elnor’s Stake President and had known her for years and then the miracle happened. Tom’s assignments were changed and he was assigned to perform the McNaughton family sealings. It was lovely and we were thrilled for Elnor and her family. We were both assigned as patrons on the last sealing session when a young ordinance worker, Jacob Goeders, fainted after kneeling for awhile. We helped out with that and waited until the paramedics cleared him and Jacob left under the care of his fiancée Krista Jahn. Jacob is Brendon’s cousin.

Our Christmas cards arrived and I was able to get them done and orange rolls made and frozen. Max will leave for Australia while we are in Germany and the Hardy family are celebrating a little Christmas with him before he goes so I have orange rolls and spiced almonds ready to contribute. We also went to the bank with him and set up a joint account to help him get his money to Australia. We added money to the amount he made on the BMW so the total would come to 25,000.  We are planning on giving this amount to each of our grandchildren around the time they get married. We need to give it to Justin and Ross in the new year.

We went to visit Roger Jahn in the Langley hospital. We were happy to be able to see him but  not with the conditions of the area of the hospital he is in - such a contrast to the hospital Tom goes to in Bad Berka. We have much to learn from Germany.

We went thru a great deal of stress on Monday when Tom felt impressed to check on our flight to Germany and found that our reservation had been cancelled. He was on the phone with the agent for a long time rebooking and having to pay an extra $1,400 for cancelling and rebooking. We had never cancelled so should not have had to pay for cancelling or rebooking. He had cancelled the rail portion of the ticket and we feel that with our language differences, they misunderstood and cancelled everything.  We felt blessed that he felt to check on the status of things and that they did not charge us the full amount of the tickets again as they had kept our initial payment. We are still trying to work with the airline to get things completely cleared up. None the less it created a great deal of anxiety as we need to get to Germany for Tom’s treatments. We don’t need added stress or anxiety but we were grateful for the positives of the situation.

We are always grateful for the love, support and prayers of so many on our behalf.