Rainbow of Hope

Tuesday was another one of those long days spent in Olympia visiting Mom and looking after things at her house. Before we headed home we stopped to get a bite to eat at the Sizzler. It was a warm, muggy kind of day with some clouds coming in.

When we came out of the restaurant we found it was sprinkling just a little bit, the first time that day. As we walked towards the car I looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow against the darkened sky. Soon I noticed it was a double rainbow with a faint glimmer of a second shadow rainbow mirroring the first at least near the ground.

When my eyes followed the strongest hued rainbow up, I discovered that it was visible all the way up and back down again - horizon to horizon. Just beautiful. Of course I had to grab my camera and get some pictures. You can see the double effect in the photo above.

Of course the whole rainbow was too large to capture in one frame of my camera, so I had to use the video option to show it all to you. The clip below is about 20 seconds. Walter and I both really enjoyed this bright spot in the sky. The rainbow is a symbol of hope after all, is it not?

A Poem for You

I was cleaning out some old files and came across this poem. I found it a long time ago on PostcardX and have been saving it to share with you.

Canned Laughter

I’ve been catching laughter
Snatching it out of the air
Jars of children’s giggles
I gathered at the fair

I’ve been catching laughter
With a net spun from dreams
Barrels full of chuckles
Bursting at the seams

I’ve been catching laughter
Tuck them under my arm
Plant them in my garden
Soon I’ll have a funny farm

© Barry Courtney
of Australia

A Miracle

Most of the information I was able to give about Genora's condition in the previous post was thanks to my sister-in-law Cathy. Cathy stayed in North Carolina with Genora until Saturday and on Friday she went with her to her doctor's appointment and got all the scoop.

In the week between Genora's surgery and her follow-up appointment Cathy and Genora had lots of time to hang out and go window shopping. One day they were at WalMart and they happened to be looking at the silicone breast enhancers that women sometimes use to enhance their breast size.

While they were looking at the silicone breast enhancers another woman was there too. She started a conversation with Genora and Cathy by telling them she had just had a lumpectomy and that's why she was looking at those. Surprised, Genora told her she had just had a mastectomy. The woman said "well then you will need a full prosthesis. These won't be sufficient for you." And she proceeded to tell Cathy and Genora about the perfect store where they would want to shop and told them exactly where to find it.

According to the woman this shop had everything a woman needs who has breast cancer. Bras, prostheses, gowns, wigs, etc. On Friday after Genora's follow-up appointment they went there and had a great time. Genora got 2 prostheses (one for day, one for night) and 6 bras. And Medicare paid for all but 30%. Cathy says Genora now looks great in her clothes again and one side looks just like the other.

When they saw what good quality the wigs were, Genora became less fearful of the possibility of chemo. And of course Cathy fell in love with the most expensive wig in the store and wants to get one for herself.

Cathy was astounded that they just "happened" to run into this woman in Wal-Mart. Cathy had planned to help Geonra find a store to get a prosthesis, but she was just going to look in the yellow pages. That may not have yielded as good a result as what they found by way of this woman's recommendation. As Cathy so aptly put it, "God works in mysterious ways!"