September 14, 2021

 Today day has been a difficult day and also an exciting day. We went this morning to have our appointment with Doctor Vrabec for Tom to receive his lupron shot and to discuss how things are going. We knew Tom’s PSA levels had gradually been increasing but we were hopeful that it wasn’t going to be a problem. When the Doctor looked at it, he said that the hormones were failing and we needed to be looking at other treatment options. He put a referral into a Medical oncologist and suggested we look into the theranostic treatments offered in Germany and other countries. We were very disappointed as we had hoped the hormones would work for several years not several  months. He said the testosterone was low but PSA increasing indicating an aggressive cancer. The reality started settling in more as the day went on and by evening fatigue added to our concern and we both had a little meltdown which is not like Tom at all. We contacted the children indicating that we needed help with visa papers for Australia and just generally needed HELP. It gets hard to carry the burden of cancer even though we are aware of the love and prayers of so many and we are grateful for our supportive children who jumped into action and for our concerned grandchildren who just love us and offer support. Cindy phoned the Australian clinic right away and got some immediate direction. We are realizing the difficulty of going to Australia as they require a 2 week quarantine, a medical visa and to top it off very few flights are going into Australia right now due to covid. Other options such as Germany are looking better.

The exciting part of our day came with Zach and Monica FaceTiming to announce that they were engaged.  They are driving Zach out to Boise to first meet  Justin and JayLynn in Utah and then get Zach to Boise where he will be playing hockey for the Steelheads. Zach had the day all planned out and the engagement organized with his family’s help. Jadyn was hiding in the bushes to take pictures. Zach is a great kid and he has worked hard to get himself to the Temple and strong in the gospel and now we will have to pray for Monica that her heart will be open to the gospel. We will be praying for both of them.

Wyatt had his birthday last week and Scott had his birthday today. We continue our service in the Temple. We are looking for new kitchen table chairs but have decided to have Terry recover our old ones with a leather like vinyl. Cindy received another good job option at a high school that she has taken and we hope this works out well. She hated to leave her little student at James Kennedy Elementary school even though he is a handful. This placement is a better opportunity for her. Charmaine had one wisdom tooth out last week but still managed to play a beautiful number in sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was a special version of O How Lovely Was the Morning. It truly brought the spirit into the room and brought Tom to tears. Tom had his zometa infusion last Wednesday at Doctor Vrabec’s office.

This is a difficult time but we will move forward with faith. We are surrounded with love for each other and from many others on both sides of the veil.

 

September 7, 2021

Labour Day has come and gone and the children are back to school this week, although our American grandchildren have been back in school for awhile. Zach is waiting to drive out west to Boise to start playing for the Steelheads and Jaydn has been recovering from her tonsillectomy and will be doing online school this semester from BYU Idaho. Justin has started another semester in PT graduate school and Ross is on his way back to school again too. Max’s online school is ongoing and he is still waiting to get to Australia and to Jaqui to get married. JayLynn’s pregnancy is moving on with baby due in January. 

Our exciting news this week is that Zachary went to the Nashville Temple on Saturday to receive his endowment. I think it was a little overwhelming for him but he is excited to go again and that is best thing to do - go again and again. We had a busy Temple week last week with Tom serving as sealer on Wednesday and Friday evenings, along with our regular session Tuesday morning and our regular service shift Saturday afternoon. It was almost like serving in the presidency again. We love it.

Jack had driven back to Kelowna with Brendon and Bryson when they were here last and Cindy, Paul and Sam drove up this Labour Day weekend to visit and pick him up. Paul and Sam came over yesterday to help us trim our Dogwood tree in the backyard and cut our grass. Jack rode his bike over this morning to be here for the delivery of Tom’s xtandi medication while we were at the Temple but the delivery came just before he arrived and we left. I thought that might happen. He did stay to do a zoom meeting he had to attend and eat some treats. 

We continue to swim twice a week and Tom is doing his stretching exercises, his inversion table and his stationary bike. He does pretty well in the Temple and at the swimming pool but he seems to struggle with church on Sunday. He gets a lot of hot flashes and seems to be uncomfortable. The hormones he has been taking for hot flashes don’t seem to be helping and in fact seems to increase the problem. He is extremely brave as he is in pain most of the time but carries on.

The weather has generally been lovely with the odd cool day. Fall is coming slowly. We still need to get more rain to get the wild fires under control. The air quality in Kelowna has not been good. We are having more fires every year and throughout the world more sever weather patterns are becoming the norm.There are many days when we just feel ready for the Savior’s return and relief from the world and it’s turmoil. We are grateful to know the plan and know He will be coming.

August 31, 2021

Today is Anderson’s tenth birthday. During August 2011 we had three grandchildren come into the world - twins Halle Renae and Sayde Marie Burgess and Anderson Alan Bull. Halle and Anderson were both stillborn. Sayde was the only one of the three that survived. Since that month we joyed in the privilege of having Sayde with us and we have grieved for the loss of Halle and Anderson. What a trio they would have been and hopefully someday they will have the opportunity of being. 

Brendon and Bryson came down this last weekend for Bryson to attend a wrestling camp in Richmond. They were here for two days and kindly mowed our lawn, set up our new inversion table, changed a doorknob and replaced a toilet seat in our bathroom. Brendon is trying so hard to help us out each time they visit and we really appreciate his efforts. He has his parents in Kelowna too that are struggling with his mother’s illness. Jack went back up with them. He is trying to be with Sianne who is visiting family up there too.

The highlight of our week was our neighbor Jean’s first visit to the Temple to receive her endowment. She went on Saturday the 28th on our shift. She had invited the Mandarin members of our ward and Shannon Tsai as her escort. I went over a few days earlier to help her pack her Temple clothes and go over a few things with her. The Temple kindly ran the session in Mandarin and she did really well. We were so pleased and happy for her. She is remarkable and we are proud of her and the girls. I tell her we were prompted to move to this neighborhood for them. They are blessing in our lives.

Tom is faithfully doing his exercises and we are still going swimming twice a week. Not our thing but we are doing it and trying to keep his strength up. He is rarely taking any painkillers as they don’t seem to help and only create side affects. We have tried the inversion table too.

We celebrated our 51st wedding anniversary on August 26 by ordering dinner from the Keg. We are so grateful for each other and more in love than ever. He is the best decision I have ever made and I am the best decision he ever made but we have always felt that the decision was made long before we ever came to earth. How blessed we are and we are very much aware of that fact.

The Sister missionaries came over to visit us Thursday morning. They live in Jean’s basement so coming over is not a long journey. The rest of our week filled up with our session at the Temple on Tuesday morning and our service in the Temple Wednesday evening (Tom filling in for Brother Barrett) and Saturday afternoon. We do our regular weekly grocery shopping and Tom is finding electric grocery carts in all the different stores. We keep ourselves busy.😊

August 24, 2021

 We continue with our swimming twice a week at the pool and Tom doing a little work on the stationary bike each day along with his regular exercises and the wearing of his new back brace. We went to see a new physiotherapist in Abbotsford yesterday and he gave us some interesting insights and suggestions. He claims that as Tom’s nerves begin to heal they will do so from the foot up and the pain diminish at the same time in an upward direction. We have an appointment with the Lion’s Gate Spine clinic in about a month - hopefully sooner if we can get the appointment moved up.

We attend our regular Temple session each Tuesday morning and Tom fills in as the sealer each Wednesday evening for Brother Barrett. I go along with him to help out. Our USA workers cannot come up to the Temple without a covid test at a cost of $150 for each test. We miss our Bellingham workers and patrons. We serve our own shift each Saturday afternoon. Tom is the sealer on the 3rd Saturday and fills in other times as needed. He does very well when he can sit. Our Temple is only serving at level 3B covid capacity. The new Temple Presidency started last week with all of them here together and this week the couples are beginning to work on their own. They will do great.

We have had a little rain but not nearly the amount we are needing to extinguish the forest fires and help our drought like conditions. The air quality continues to be poor in Kelowna but Liza has still tried to get out to bike ride which worries me. The Kona Iron Man has been canceled for covid reasons and Liza fears that the Penticton race will be canceled as well so she is looking for a race in the USA she could join. The world seems to be experiencing fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, war, unrest and the covid pandemic all at once. We just feel ready for the Savior’s return. 

We are grateful for the gospel and for our family. All our children were on the Sunday family zoom along with our grandchildren. ❤️ We have been called to teach the ward Temple Prep along with our music calling and we taught Zachary Temple Prep again on Sunday. The Temple, the gospel and our family - all things we love the most!

August 17, 2021

 We have been trying to find things to help strengthen Tom so, after Liza’s initial trip to the pool with him, I have been going and he has been swimming laps and doing exercises. We sit in the hot tub when we are finished and he enjoys that. I wish we had our own hot tub again. The stationary bike he and Liza ordered arrived just before the Burgess family’s one night stay on their way home from Vancouver Island and Brendon and the children got the bike put together. His leg was hurting after his first attempt and I think he needs to build up gradually. We are getting him a back brace too to give his back some support. We talked to Wendy Jack at church and she is trying to get him into the spinal clinic at Lion’s Gate earlier that his appointment on September 17. We so appreciate the love and concern offered by so many. It truly lifts us.

Liza, Brendon and family arrived at our house again on Friday and they busied themselves doing things for us. We had some smoke and ash before they got here and shortly after their return to Kelowna Liza messaged us that forest fires were coming near Kelowna and that some areas were being evacuated in West Kelowna. There was a fire that broke out near their church but it was put out quickly. Liza had a patient’s family who completely lost everything when their home burned north of Kelowna. The fires are getting worse every year and it is becoming somewhat disconcerting.

Tom went for a bone infusion at Dr. Vrabec’s this week. We had our house washed the same day with siding, gutters and windows being washed and a treatment sprayed on the moss growth on our roof. The treatment is suppose to kill the moss and cause it to disintegrate and then wash away. We will see. We attended our Temple session, Tom substituted on Wednesday evening for Brother Barrett as a sealer and I went with him to give him support. We did our own shift on Saturday afternoon. Tom gives his all. With the Temple and swimming, along with groceries and appointments, our weeks seem to fill up and we are tired but don’t always sleep well.

We continue to watch Come Follow Me podcast broadcasts six days a week (5 broadcasts in total) and really enjoy those. We have our family zoom each Sunday and after our zoom meeting this week we taught Zach the first 2 Temple Prep lessons as he prepares for the Temple. Jadyn had her tonsils out yesterday. Gospel study and family fill our days too.

The new Temple Presidency started their service yesterday. The change date has been  moved from November 1 to mid August now. The Van Horne Presidency have been so kind to us and supportive. They have served well during this very difficult, fluctuating time. It is such a privilege to serve in the Temple and all who do so find sweet joy. 

We carry on with hope and lots of prayers.

August 10, 2021

 We became the destination spot for the Burgess/Hardy camping trip this year due to smoke originating from forest fires in the interior. The girls planned activities and meals and Liza was able to do her running and biking training outdoors and swimming at our local pool. Brendon joined her for some of her biking and swimming. They all did some shopping, a day at Cultus lake for boating, a day at Crescent Beach in WhiteRock and a day of cliff jumping at Whyte Cliff Park in West Vancouver. They had several meals at our house and we paid for them to go out for Chinese food at Capilano Heights Restaurant while they were on the North Shore. Bryson took Cathy Zang along with him on some adventures as Jack often had Sianne with him. On Sunday we celebrated Sayde’s tenth birthday and I helped with the dinner. We all stayed at our house for Sacrament Meeting as we felt our numbers were too great for the in church meeting. We did our own Sunday school too and zoomed Trevor’s family. The Bull’s were in California. Liza took Tom swimming at the pool and helped him decide on a stationary bike which he ordered from Costco. It has been a busy week and we all enjoyed watching events from the olympics being held in Japan. Liza’s family packed up and left for camping on the island on Monday and we are hoping they are enjoying their time together. Brendon was wonderful and completed several repairs for us around the house while they were here.

Tom and I served in the Temple last Tuesday where Tom filled in for Brother Gruber. We served our regular shift on Saturday and attended a session with Liza and Brendon Friday morning. The two families did baptisms at the Temple on Thursday evening. Tom takes painkillers when he serves in the Temple. He loves to be there and he comes alive when he is in the Temple. He loves to perform sealings and it never seems as though he is in any pain at all while he is doing that.

Tom’s pain, however, is still unchanged but we have committed to go swimming twice a week, starting today, and we are hoping that the stationary bike he has ordered will also help him maintain his strength and perhaps correct his herniated disc. He had a phone call visit with Dr. Collingridge today to review how things are going. We are looking for and praying for solutions to this terrible sciatic like pain he is experiencing. He handles it well and unless serving in the Temple he is determined to not take painkillers. He does his stretches throughout the day and because he hates to see me doing the work he tries hard to assist with laundry, dishes, bathroom cleaning etc. I have to hold him down. He is so precious. We are still receiving calls and messages from friends with expressions of love and concern. We are very grateful and it means a lot to us.

The children like to visit our old neighborhood when they are on the North Shore and they regularly go to the Hardy’s store they used to frequent as children. They stopped when they were there this past week and bought me some beautiful roses and candy for themselves of course. We all miss our North Shore Home.

August 3, 2021

 When Tom was first diagnosed with cancer we made the decision that we would let other people than our children know what was happening. We felt that it would be hard on our family to feel that they were alone in this with us and difficult also for us to deal with alone when we were already isolated due to covid. We contacted the Bishop and the Relief Society President and told them about our circumstances but said we were fine and didn’t need any special help, just prayers. Well help came anyway in the form of food, cards, messages, phone calls, flowers, fasting, prayers and love. We are still receiving on a regular basis and are still very touched and grateful. Sometimes it even becomes comical. I ran into Lincoln when I was out walking one day this week and he was on his way to pick blueberries and asked if we wanted any and told him we were fine as Cindy was ordering some for us. I did not tell him that our neighbor Marie had just brought us some before she left for her cabin too. Well, a few hours later Mary, Lincoln and granddaughter arrived at our door with a big bucket of blueberries. In the mean time I had reminded Cindy to get some for us. Fast forward another few hours and our neighbor Jean and Cheyenne arrived at the door with a large box of blueberries. We were grateful for everyone’s love but we had to giggle and I was kept busy freezing blueberries. Sam and Cindy also followed up and picked us some berries before I informed her of the blueberry blessings we were already counting.

We had numerous friends call this week checking on us and Jackson and Jill even called for Tom’s birthday on the 30th as did Joanne and Dave. He had messages and calls from the children and Adrienne Toolson sent a lovely card and message. I made a special dinner and with Liza’s assistance we have ordered a stationary sit bike for him to strengthen his legs and body and hopefully help his herniated disc. 

We went for a session at the Temple on Friday and worked our shift on Saturday after his last pain shot. He was a sealer substitute on Tuesday evening and I went with him to give him support. He is a miracle in the Temple especially when he is doing sealings as he moves along as normal and doesn’t seem to feel the pain he experiences at home. He does take some painkillers but even so he seems to be lifted and blessed.

Zach contacted us and asked that we teach him Temple prep as he is looking to receiving his endowments. We gave him a little introduction and talked to him about his relationship with his nonmember girlfriend Monica. We are proud of him but realize he has some challenging decisions to make and we will be praying for him. We have taught Max, Carol Jones and Geoff Cleeves Temple prep since returning from our mission and the Bishop says he has more coming up that he would like us to teach. We love it. We love the Temple.

Cindy and family were going to join the Burgess family at Shuswap this week for the annual Burgess family camp however the smoke from the forest fires in the interior has increased to a dangerous level and Liza and family have come here instead. The girls have planned daily activities and meals together. We are now the camp and we are thrilled to have them and appreciate their company, support and help. The Burgess family arrived Monday and they all went to Cultus Lake for boating activities with Reid Hardy’s boat on Tuesday. More to come this week. Liza works to get her daily training in at some point, usually early in the morning or late in the evening.

Tom’s pain is unchanged and Liza is going to take him to the pool for exercises and Cindy is getting the name of a PT and massage therapist that helped her friend with a herniated disc. Blood test this week had testosterone and other levels down and PSA slightly up. Onward, hopeful and grateful for love prayers and support.