May 4, 2021

 Tom is seeming to feel stronger these days - walking further and faster, helping more with housework and we even cleaned the garage today. He usually makes breakfast, sometimes lunch and always washes the dishes and does most of of laundry. It makes him feel good to accomplish things. He continues reading books, scriptures and doing his daily exercises as well as doing our family business. He is a pretty busy guy and he really hates not being busy. He had his monthly blood work done on Monday and his numbers were very good. We pray that things will keep moving in this positive direction. We realize that there is no cure at the moment for this disease but there are treatments and when one treatment starts to fail you direct your attention to another. Our hope is that the hormone treatments he is on now will be beneficial for a number of years and that new and even better treatments are being developed in the meantime.

Friends continue to being meals and send messages. When we made a run to return dishes to people who had kindly brought us meals, Sandra Barroby insisted on making arrangements to bring us yet another dinner on Saturday. We cannot seem to stop her. On our way home that day we stopped by the Temple to see how the new landscaping and fence were coming along and while there we ran into Cheng-Hao Wang and his daughter Michelle and they ended up bringing us some lovely food on Sunday. We also visited with the Wanners at the Temple grounds too. We spend time regularly responding to messages and emails and visiting on the phone with friends and family.

Our new BBQ was our project last week and we managed to get the parts around to the back deck and complete the assembly on our own. I don’t recall putting a BBQ together in the past but maybe Tom did that on his own because this was certainly my first involvement in the process. We have used the BBQ a couple of times already and Tom insists on having it completely scrubbed and clean after each use. We will see if that continues throughout the rest of the summer. I have never really been involved in cleaning the BBQs either. Tom has taken care of that too.

We had our Stake Conference this past week so we watched our meetings Saturday evening and Sunday morning via zoom. The Temple President and Matron spoke on Saturday evening along with the Stake Presidency. Unfortunately Paul froze as he was nearing the end of his talk. It was an excellent talk too and we felt badly. The Sunday morning session had the Mission President and his wife speaking, the Stake President and numerous primary children and young men and young women. They had prerecorded the youth and primary children. It was a different conference but very nice. We also had an interlude musical number at each session and the Tabernacle Choir singing the hymns. We have become very adept at zoom meetings. I have been asked to teach Relief Society this month via zoom of course.

The weather has not been too bad and our walks have been quite pleasant other than the fact that  I tripped on a curb yesterday and now have a banged up nose and scraped hands. I am just grateful it wasn’t Tom as his bones are compromised due to the cancer. My bones are also a little compromised with osteoporosis. We just need to stay on our feet. The joys of aging.

April 27, 2021

 We gave Cindy and Paul our little BBQ when we left on our mission and not knowing if we were returning to our mission or not, we didn’t replace it last summer. This summer we decided it was time to purchase a new one. We have been shopping online and out in the stores and finally decided on a Cuisinart brand at Walmart. We also purchased some plants for the deck and the yard. Paul and Max picked the BBQ up and brought to us on Saturday and we have slowly managed to put it together and get it out on the back deck all by ourselves. We partially assembled it in our garage and carried the pieces around to the back deck and thru Tom’s determination we did it. We are trying to keep Tom’s bones safe by not allowing him to fall or to over exert but he is hard to hold down. I got the plants planted and set in place. We may be stiff  and sore but we are still independent.

Tom has had a couple of phone appointments with Dr. Bahl and Dr. Collingridge this week and we went to Abbotsford to have an office appointment on Monday with Dr. Collingridge. Tom had been concerned about some bowel problems he has experienced but things seem to be okay and that is good. We are doing longer walks and Tom is walking faster and even though he still has some pain in his upper leg area, it is much better than it was. Dr. Collingridge said radiation will continue to work long after it is administered so maybe things will continue to improve and perhaps the swelling and pain he is experiencing will continue to improve with the xtandi treatments over time as well. We pray and pray and are always hopeful. The prayers and concern of our family others continues to bless us and we truly do feel lifted. Maureen Fairbairn brought us dinner last week, the Komm’s called, we talked to Marianne McCall and others have been in touch with us. We love our Sunday meetings with our children and they keep in touch with us thru the week too.

Rolfsons are getting over covid and our friend Sister Monza is still recuperating from covid in the hospital. Glenn Collingridge told Tom of a pregnant patient with covid that he fears may not make it. He says this is not a joke as so many people considerate it to be. Cindy received her covid shot and we are hoping Paul will be able to receive his shot soon. Scott and Rissa’s blood work indicates they have had covid and Trevor, Tammie, Liza, Brendon, Justin and JayLynn have all had their vaccinations. Jadyn has had covid along with all her roommates. I am ready for all the grandchildren to be vaccinated now. The disease or the new variants of it are running rampant and India is in a terrible state. Even eastern Canada has flared up again due to variants. What a year it has been!

President Nealson has asked us to consider what we have learned during this past difficult year. I have thought about that question a good deal. I have learned that we are resilient and adaptive as a people and as a church. I have learned of new ways to study the gospel. I have an added appreciation for my husband and our family. I love them so. I have learned of the peace the gospel brings in truly difficult times. I have learned of the love of others for us and the importance of extending our love and prayers to others. I have learned how very blessed I am.

April 20, 2021

 We were startled last evening while we were quietly watching TV and suddenly heard loud knocking at our front door. We hurried to see who was there and found our next door neighbor Anne in a destressed condition. She hurriedly announced that there was a terrible fire nearby and that the fire was showering burning embers all over our neighborhood. Once out the front door we could see the situation for ourselves. We hadn’t even heard sirens but a fire was definitely raging close by and a cloud of smoke carrying hot embers was right overhead and those embers were raining down onto our street and houses. Some neighbors had hoses and were spraying water on their houses. I ran next door to alert Gene and Marie and then across the street to notify Jean and Cheyenne while Tom pulled our side hose out and started wetting our roof. I called Paul and Cindy and they said they were coming over. We soon received information that an apartment building three blocks away was on fire. The building is still under construction. Luckily there was no wind or that may have fanned the flames even more and perhaps even the embers too. Cindy and Paul drove by the fire and then finally made their way to our neighborhood having first acquired footage of the flames. We stayed outside with our neighbors talking and evaluating the situation until we were all certain that the fire seemed to be under control and the ember cloud ceased to rain down on us. Cindy and Paul’s pictures showed that the six story building had indeed burned right to the ground and only the cement elevator towers remained. Everyone checked around their homes for start up fires and we finally went inside feeling a little chilly and little shaken. There had been some electric explosions during the fire and sure enough we too lost power before getting into bed. The power came on a few hours later but quickly went out again leaving our home fire alarms beeping for most of the night despite my attempts to silence them. 

This morning we got a better look at things and could see the fields behind covered in ash and debris. Some dear woman went out with a garbage bag and started trying to pick up larger pieces. The lawn mower tracker came and went over the fields which helped the situation. The school children were kept inside and off the fields today. I hosed off our driveway and front yard and Tom used a long pull to knock a large piece of debris off our roof. We walked over to the fire site and found the area around blocked off by police. The fire is still smoking and they are still pouring water onto it. The building next to it was partially burned as well and there were flames on the top floor that firemen were still working on. Beautiful day though and dear sweet Maureen Fairbairn is bringing us dinner. We are a little tired.

Tom’s pain seems to be doing better since the completion of radiation and he is walking farther and doing more. We are always hopeful and prayerful. It has been a lovely sunny week and we have both been doing some yard work and Tom has hosed off the back deck and washed the windows facing the deck. We have the outdoor furniture set up and we have been enjoying our time using that area. We have been listening to audio books together and doing our regular “Come Follow Me” activities. We watch or listen to five podcasts each week and really enjoy them. We listen to a conference talk during supper and then the podcasts right after we cleanup the dishes and before watching our movies and programs. We have no more medicinal appointments until May which makes for a nice break. We love zooming with our family each Sunday and we are still taking Carol the sacrament on Sundays.

We are very grateful that our home and our neighborhood was kept safe during the firestorm last night. It really could have turned out much differently.

 

April 13, 2021

 This past week Tom has had five radiation treatments at the Abbotsford hospital Cancer Clinic for the pain he has been experiencing in his left leg. The pain seemed to improve just before the treatments began but grew a bit worse as they proceeded. We are told that increased pain initially is normal. He had also been experiencing pain in his upper rib area but only when he coughed or moved in certain ways. That pain seemed to improve after a few days of topical analgesic. Right now he is on no pain killers and feeling quite well. He does get tired but is trying to walk more and do more around the house. His last radiation treatment was on Monday and we met with a young female oncologist before the treatment. We also had a zometa treatment last week amidst his five day radiation regime. We received a second delivery of the xtandi hormones last Friday. Each day we seem to get phone calls or messages of support from our family and others. It means so much and carries us along.

We have been working on getting the summer tires on the car. We took the car and tires to Costco for the change to be made but one tire is needing replacement before things can move forward so Tom has been phoning around and working on the purchase of a new tire. We have been listening to an audio book on Covenants together and that has been interesting. I also reread the Ridges book on Temple Symbols which is also very good. I have been communicating with Val Meyer regarding our health and well being along with paint colors for their new home in Saskatchewan. It is hard to choose colors two provinces away. Carol is busy with their move to Saskatchewan and didn’t want to meet on Thursday this week but we did the sacrament for her on Sunday.

Marilyn and Cordell Rolfson both have covid. So many of our friends, family members and associates have health problems or other serious concerns and, as we are unable to to do much else for them, we pray and our prayer list is very long. It seems that the world is going thru a very trying time personally for many individuals and collectively with covid.

The weather has improved this week and it is nice to feel the sun and a little warmth. It makes Tom feel good and that makes me happy. The trees are blossoming and the leaves popping out on the trees. Nature has it’s own way of blessing our lives.

April 6, 2021

 March 12th, 2020 President Irwin of the London Temple announced to the American missionaries that they were being sent home due to the covid virus concerns. We wondered why they had not included the Australian and Canadian missionaries but by the time we found President Irwin at our apartment door later that evening, we had already obtained the information from the Church website and we knew he was there to announce our departure as well. He almost apologetically told us that we would have to isolate for two weeks after arriving home to insure that we hadn’t brought the virus with us. We were fine with two quiet weeks alone settling back into home. Well, we are now in April 2021 and in the second YEAR of isolation. We go for groceries, medical appointments, hair appointments but little else and we are still isolated. We have had our church services at home by zoom and we communicate with our family via zoom, messaging, FaceTime and phone or we talk in the yard. We were a little bit freer last spring and could see our children but things have clamped down since and today, when we went for Tom’s first radiation treatment at the hospital, they told me I could not go in with him as covid numbers had gone up. I am certain there will be an end to this but when we left England just over a year ago, we could have never imagined that we would still be spending most of our time in our home the following April 2021.  We love each other and enjoy being together so that has been a bonus in this situation. 

Miracles are a part of our everyday lives but our everyday eyes often fail to take note of them as they cross our paths. On my birthday Tom started to develop an angry looking rash on a large part of his body. Tom’s own doctor was worried that it was being caused by the main hormone he is taking for his cancer treatment. We contacted 4 pharmacists and all of them felt it would more likely be caused by the painkillers he was on for the pain he has been experiencing in his leg. The doctor replaced that painkiller with another and slowly the rash started to disappear. That was a blessing and a miracle. The painkillers however, started to create sever problems for his bowels and this past weekend as the rash was coming to an end he stopped taking the painkillers to help his bowels. Whenever he has tried to go without painkillers the last few months he has been unable to do so. He stopped taking them this time on Good Friday and didn’t tell me until Saturday. His pain was greatly diminished. He had now developed a pain in his upper back rib area but his leg pain is much better. With the pain killers gone the bowel problem cleared up too. All miracles and we felt very blessed and grateful. He just started a five day course of radiation today to help the leg pain and hopefully that will decrease the pain even further. His hormone treatments seem to helping and onward we go - challenged but trying to not miss the miracles. He even mowed and edged the lawn yesterday.

We enjoyed a wonderful General Conference weekend and celebrated Easter, which was a lovely sunny day, with our regular family zoom, our little turkey breast dinner on our own and our precious Savior and His Atonement - what more could we ask for.

March 30, 2021

 The cancer path has it’s ups and downs and this week has had it all. Doctor Bahl called to discuss radiation with us and noted that the CT scan from last week showed cancer in most of his pelvis area, that is more than the first CT, so radiation will have to cover the whole general area. Doctor Collingridge then phoned to say that the same CT showed a decrease in prostate and lymph nod sizes. That is good. On Thursday evening, after our children had been here for a backyard meal, we noted that Tom was developing a rash on his ankles and it soon spread over most of his body. That is concerning. We contacted  the doctor and have been waiting to see what the rash does. The doctor feels it is a reaction to medication so, in an effort not to alter the cancer treatment medications, we have changed the painkiller hydromorphone which is relatively new to see if it is the culprit. We have personally talked to two London Drug pharmacists, the pharmacy that dispensed the xtandi to us and the Canadian Cancer Agency that cleared us for xtandi. All seem to feel that the opioid painkiller would more likely be the the cause and not the xtandi. Dr. Collingridge is unsure but we are testing by eliminating of the hydromorphone first. We are in the waiting stage right now. It can be very draining for both of us. We constantly are praying and really appreciate the prays and support of others.

We are so grateful for our wonderful family and their constant support. Liza’s family came down for a spring break holiday and stayed in a hotel in downtown Vancouver. We really miss having them here. Cindy’s family did another quick holiday, this time to Harrison Hot Springs. They all came to our place on Thursday evening and we had Chinese food and cake to celebrate Breya and Liza’s upcoming birthdays. It was a backyard party of course but still so good to be with them. We miss hugging everyone. Covid will come to an end. We love our family zoom meetings on Sunday. Paul and Max came to give Tom a blessing just before the family zoom and they stayed, with masks on, to watch with us as a storm had knocked their power out at home.

We carried on a regular routine with our trip out for groceries and other outings for errands. We met with Carol on Thursday and gave her the last Temple Prep lesson but we didn’t go on Sunday to do the Sacrament as they were having an open house for the sale of their home. We took flowers to Sandra Barroby to thank her for the meals and muffins she has provided us with. Wayne Lavender came to help us with some plumbing concerns. He came Saturday and back on Monday. He is such a good friend. We have so many of  those and we feel very blessed.

We try to pray for everyone we know of who is struggling with problems. People are being so kind to us and there is not much other than prayer that we can offer them at this time. We have come to realize that life is a challenge and that the Lord is loving and kind and extending Him arm to all. We are so grateful for the gospel in our lives and the understanding it provides. We love the Come Follow Me program President Nelson has given us and we truly enjoy the Come Follow Me podcasts we watch each week. We watch or listen to about five. Keeps us in the thick of good things. The Savior did not atone for us and then take a Celestial holiday. He has never stopped serving us, loving us and fighting for us and all mankind. “He is not dead nor doth he sleep” and I want to be just like Him when I grow up.

March 23, 2021

 There doesn’t seem to be a day go by that we do not have something kind done for us. We feel very blessed. We receive messages, phone calls, cards, and flowers. On Friday President Van Horne called to discuss the option of opening the Temple just for Sarah to receive her endowments and Tom to seal Ross and Sarah. He is concerned about Tom’s health deteriorating but we assured him that at the moment we are okay waiting for the Temple to open. He then added that with the picture changes that took place in the Temple just before we left on our mission, one picture, that had been in the Temple, was taken to replace the Minerva Teichert painting that had been hanging in the den of the Temple President’s house. The picture ladies had discarded the Minerva “Shouting Hosannna” painting and left it in the Van Horne’s hands to deal with appropriately. Van Hornes did not have the heart to destroy it, plus they remembered that we had expressed our fondest for the painting and they were now offering it to us. We were overwhelmed and very touched. President Van Horne brought it over over soon afterward and we quickly decided that she would have a home in our den. Other than the view of the Temple out the front windows, the painting was my favourite part of the Temple President’s house. This was a miracle of sorts because as paintings are taken down in the Temple a big X is put across them and they are thrown out. Perhaps, because this one was in the President’s house and not the Temple, the ladies removing it felt to leave the decision regarding it up to the Van Hornes. Whatever the case may be, we felt very blessed and loved by this kind gesture. Sandra Barroby phoned Sunday morning to say she had just baked some healthy muffins and wanted to bring some to us. We told her we were just leaving to give Carol the sacrament and we would pick them up instead. We had some good visits with friends on the phone this week too. Our cup is overflowing with kindness. 

Cindy’s family (Paul, Cindy, Jack and Sam) did a little spring break vacation to downtown Vancouver and enjoyed themselves riding bikes around the park, eating and visiting favorite sites. Trevor’s family (Trevor, Tammie and Treyvn)  flew to Utah to visit Justin and JayLynn and ski. Jadyn took the bus up from Idaho to be with them. Liza’s family arrived yesterday and dropped by on their way to downtown Vancouver for their vacation and Cindy’s family is now off to Harrison Hot Springs for a couple of days. Rissa’s family will stay put at their mountain cabin and ski. Covid holidays are not so bad. We miss them all and appreciate our little moments with them. Zach and Max are both working and Ross and Sarah are busy with work and school but the rest are pretty lucky kids.

We are waiting for the xtandi to begin to help with Tom’s leg pain. Dr. Collingridge gave him a stronger painkiller last week which seems to help with the pain but he does seem to be somewhat better even when we don’t factor in the painkillers. He is going to talk to Dr. Bahl about the option of radiation but hopefully the xtandi will kick in more before that is necessary. He completed his very, very difficult puzzle which was a great accomplishment. 

Cancer is a daunting opponent but we are doing our very best to put it in it’s place and I feel optimistic. We are grateful for treatments that are available and we pray for new ones and cures to be developed.