Update!

It's Thursday already, and I haven't been here at my blog all week. I do have updates about my friend, Jenise, who was in the car accident, and about her dog, Laverne, who was also badly hurt. But first, I want to share that my younger sister Jessica's best friend Claudia died Tuesday night from cancer. Claudia was only 53, but she looked 30. She was funny and fun, kind and a great cook. When my dad died, Claudia showed up at Jess' house with platters of beautiful food. I feel so sad about Claudia, and for my sister - who has lost both her parents AND her best friend in the past 3 years.

Jenise has had two surgeries: The first was on her spine, where they attached two steel plates to her L1Vertebra, which had "blown out." The second one was to fix her ribs, which also involved steel plates. The doctors say that everything went well and that "in 90 days she won't even remember the accident." But that's hard to believe after seeing her for literally two seconds yesterday, when she was in so much pain. I think though, that the worst is over and recovery will begin. She's a yoga teacher, so she's fit and strong. She's still in the ICU and I expect she'll be in the hospital for another week.

We've raised more than $7000 for Jenise by selling her handmade jewelry at the yoga studio and from donations. The wonderful thing is that there is no "big check" in that total - I think the biggest check I saw was for $250. So it's many, many people giving. So many people have offered to help her in different ways. An artist has given us her greeting cards to sell, with all proceeds going to Jenise. The interior decorator next door to the studio is donating 10% of all her retail sales through April.

Laverne is getting private physical therapy down in Albuquerque. A promising sign this week is that she tried to stand and put weight on her back legs. The spinal cord trauma takes 10 days to heal they say, and that's when they will know if there is hope for Laverne to walk. We've set up a separate fund to help with expenses for Laverne's care.

Life can be so sad, but there is also such kindness and love out there. Sometimes we don't know how much, until the bad thing happens. Jenise is overwhelmed that so many people want to help her, she said she "didn't think people would help so much." It's gone a great long way to relieve her anxiety about what comes next in her life.

So that's the scoop. RVPainter and I are having a day of errands to clear our heads. We're taking boxes to ship to Elkhart  - stuff we need in the RV when we get there. And then of course to storage to put stuff in and to look for my sneakers. :-) Weather has been like spring, so later we'll take a walk downtown (since we are still personna non grata over at the cemetery) and sit in the Plaza and watch life go by.