Another report from the Valley of the Sun

We have extended our stay in Mesa one more month due to the incredibly beautiful weather here. Days when it’s a little breezy here in Mesa, we get reports that there is gale force wind and cold in Northern Arizona and that definitely curbs any enthusiasm we have of returning home too soon. We’ve lived through too many of those springs to miss that.

Visits from our daughters and their families during March have been fun and we’ve enjoyed swimming, visits to parks, movies, celebrating birthdays and other activities. Its always good to have visits with kids and Grandkids :)

Frank recently had his 2 month blood work done and checkup at Mayo Clinic. Some of his blood counts looked better, his red cells, white cells and platelets all had risen a little--but the M spike not so good. That measures the number of malignant cells in his blood. Normal is 0 and his had been holding at .8 but it has risen to 1.3 (measured in thousands) not so good. He has also lost another 4 pounds. His doctor wants to see him again in 6 weeks to see if things continue to worsen and if he’ll need a change in protocol. He still has lots of times free of pain and usual good humor but never much stamina.

Yesterday his family really had a scare when one of his nieces, Lynn, went missing. She owns a medical transport business and had left early in the morning to pick up a patient on the Reservation and take her for a dialysis treatment, a routine she had followed for years. When the patient didn’t arrive at the clinic on schedule, they tried to contact Lynn but her phone was turned off, totally unusual for her. They then contacted her high school aged children at home. These kids, bless their hearts, reported her missing and then drove to the reservation and spent hours looking for her, to no avail. Search and rescue, police and sheriff’s offices in two counties were involved, her cell phone carrier contacted to find out when the last use of her phone was—about 6 am with a short 4 letter message, apparently the name of a person with the vowels missing, someone who had threatened her numerous times in the past because she had offered refuge to a former spouse of this person who had been brutalized. Lynn had been accused of breaking up the marriage. The cell phone company was able to determine that she had never left the general area of her home and so the search was concentrated there. After many hours, her vehicle was located. She was not in it and the worst was feared by all. A nearby lake was searched to no avail. A friend of hers read on Facebook the area the car had been found in and decided to search himself in a river and eventually he found her alive on a large rock over the river,at the base of a 30-40 foot cliff that she had apparently been pushed off of. If she had rolled one nore time she would have gone into the water and drowned. She was severely sunburned, eyes swollen shut, dehydrated from laying out all day without water and bruised all over, but had no memory of what had happened. She was was flown to Flagstaff hosp. where she was tested, treated, x-rayed, (no broken bones!!!) had an MRI and then brought home by her brother where she is resting and recuperating. If she had not been found before nightfall, she probably would not have survived the night as it gets down to freezing or below at night there. We all thank the Lord for this miracle. Hopefully the perpetrator will be discovered, prosecuted and locked up.

As Easter approaches, we are so grateful for God our Father, his Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and for His sacrifice and atonement that we all will be resurrected and live forever. It is so comforting to know that we all can be together as families in Their presence in the eternities.