(Trying to) Make the Most of it

As soon as I sent my post, I remembered something else
I wanted to share.

Here's an email exchange that is currently helping me.
(I did edit it for length...) I had emailed Wynn on
Aug 14 to see if he had returned from his volunteer
work in Mexico.

He wrote back on Aug 15:
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Hi! *hug*

Well, you know me, always having some kind of crazy
adventure, so I was flown back from Mexico a little
early for emergency hospitalization at Ben Taub, and
told I had four to ten days to live unless my liver
miraculously regenerated. It did,and I feel great and
am enjoying my last few days before the new semester.
Dunno why I had hepatitis; it was non-infectious, so
apparently caused by a poison or allergic reaction, or
an autoimmune disfunction. *shrug*
I'm fine again.

You're one of those friends who is always welcome to
leave a message. :)

We're on the cusp of working out our various holiday
plans, and it looks as if we Houston Martins will
share Thanksgiving with Scott & Jenny (and Lyda!) at
their house near the Alamo.

Those three will spend Christmas with Jenny's family.
I quite enjoy and admire Jenny, and love her
family--her brother and sister, and her brother's
wife, are really fun and feel to me like cousins,or
something. :) I've never had cousins, so I'm
possibly projecting.

And rambling. *grin*

Loquaciously,
wynn

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I wrote back, also on Aug 15:
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY,

You are so kidding me! As we Yidn* say, you needed a
medical crisis like I need a hole in the head. I am
so sorry that happened to you! It sounds beyond
traumatic. I wish I had known; we would have tried to
be some help to you and your family--running errands,
whatever you wanted. I will be full of healing,
positive thoughts going your direction (a la Sammy).

I really really wanna hear your (non-recorded) voice,
so if you feel like calling, please feel free.

No pressure, just options.

We really love you, Wynn, and hope you are making a
full and speedy recovery and that NOTHING BAD EVER
HAPPENS AGAIN. But if it does, please remember that we
are here for you and your family.

Well, enough mushy mushy.

Take care, and let us know when you are up to seeing
us.

Sweetly (oy, I got a cavity),
Renee

*Yidn=Yiddish word for "da Jews" affectionate, but not
usually a term used by, ahem, those who are not, let
us say, a "member of the tribe"
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He wrote back, and this is the important bit:
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*chuckle* Really, the whole
emergency-flight-from-Mexico, hospitalization and
expectation of death was not such a big deal, to me;
you just have what you have, and can choose to freak
out or just to make the most of it, you know? It was
a remarkably calm deal for me, and I needed almost
nothing from anyone else, in fact... it was rather
nice to just lie there at Ben Taub for a couple of
days, without visitors freaking out. Mom & Dad were
conveniently in Australia where I couldn't reach them
anyway, and I thought that was just as well.

Anyway, it's totally behind us and truly just not a
big deal in retrospect; an inconsequential blip in
history.

One life to liver (heehee),
wynn
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"[The]expectation of death was not such a big deal,
to me; you just have what you have, and can choose to
freak out or just to make the most of it, you know?"

I'll try to remember that wisdom. Wow, is it hard.

Renee Waghalter (again)