This beautiful group has been my second family for almost the past two decades. Joan had a Hawaiian theme, having us all greeted at the door by her granddaughter who did an excellent job as a lei greeter.
Gerri's husband researched the net to come up with the perfect phrasing for the cake that Huong's mom baked herself. "A Hui Ho" means "Until We Meet Again" in Hawaiian.
Yesterday we attended a Farewell Party that was hosted by Joan, who used to be my 1st grade teaching partner. It was incredible. I’m still blown away. I don’t know how to explain it. I felt like it was an out of body experience. Then my good buddy, Gerri gave a heart to heart speech that had me retreating into that quiet spot in my mind to try to cope with it all. It was too beautiful, too overwhelming for me. Another friend there mentioned that I remained dry-eyed while everybody else had tears in theirs. I asked Gerri for a copy of her speech so I could hear her words again in private when no one was looking at me or taking photos.
When we returned home, I opened the beautiful Italian music box they gave me and listened again to it play the tune, Chicago. Today is the day I go in for my 1st thyrogen shot. The second one is tomorrow. Wednesday is the radioactive dye or something like that and Thursday and Friday will be the body scans to make sure there are no more thyroid cancer cells lurking in my body. I’ll be carrying that tune, the beautiful memories of yesterday and all your kind wishes to finish this coming week and move on to the final week of our time in Illinois.
You are obviously well-loved. With all those good thoughts and best wishes, your treatments are bound to be successful.
ReplyDeleteJo
Wow! What a tribute to you from your former colleagues. It sounds as if they had fun making the party especially meaningful to you in so many ways. Best wishes this week at your many appointments.
ReplyDeletewow, what a beautiful occasion, almost like hearing your own funeral talks but you are still alive and kicking. just trying to hide your tears of happiness as you bask in all the love and good wishes of your many friends. i think heaven will be a great reunion when we are able to meet all that we have associated with here and recall how our lives influenced each other. good luck with your body scans-you are doing that on top of moving? what a brave person you are. may god bless you.
ReplyDeleteThis was a beautiful and touching post!
ReplyDeleteThat is such a lovely site - to see good friends enjoying each other. And, the pics are beautiful, as usual. I can almost take a bite out of the cake, it looks so real on my screen.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you and keep you safe.
ReplyDeleteI'll be saying a prayer for you.
Keep thinking good thoughts.
A truly beautiful "flower garden" of friends--- You are truly a master gardener,, and I'm honoured to be a part of your new blogosphere staffroom!!
ReplyDeleteThis is truly a beautiful post with such wonderful photos. Wishing you all the best!
ReplyDeleteMountain Retreat
What wonderful friends you have Kay...I hope your tests go well!!!!
ReplyDeleteOur prayers go with you, Kay.
ReplyDeleteI spent some time catching up this morning. It must be difficult moving to an island after such a long stay in one place. I've moved around a lot too (never to an island!); I've learned to to get organized very quickly. It's funny how those plastic containers finally brought on the tears.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I had no idea about the cancer. Hugs to you, I hope your doctors visit, tests, etc. turn out to be everything you want them to be.
I'm so looking forward to hearing about your journey.
What a wonderful thing to do for you both and a great cake.
ReplyDeleteJust so you know one of my blogroll links is to Pam OKC a good friend of mine and lovely lady, who also had thyroid cancer. If you ever need someone to sound off too I know she'd be a great support.
I have Graves Disease, an auto-immune thyroid disease, not sure if you have discovered that on my blog yet.
Glad you had a good day today and enjoyed the movie.