Rt. Rev. Samuel J. Howard.
Our bishop put out a letter to the diocese requesting prayers for him and his wife as he journeys to California to undergo surgery on his neck. From his August 31st letter:
I will be having significant spinal surgery to my neck on September 15 to address the effects of an injury that began as a childhood gymnastics accident and was made worse by football injuries when I was a young man. As you may know, I have been treated in virtually every way imaginable over the years for pain and mobility issues, but have been reluctant to undergo surgery. However, after much prayer, and consultation with a number of neurological and orthopedic surgeons, I have come to believe there is no alternative, and that now is the time. Marie and I have visited with a number of doctors in Florida and the Southeast. All of them agree that surgery cannot be delayed and that, to put it bluntly, even a relatively slight injury at this point could result in a much worse condition, or even paralysis.
Dr. Brian Andrews, a highly respected neurosurgeon in San Francisco, will perform the surgery. This gifted physician specializes in the precise procedure I need, and he proposes surgery that will be minimally invasive and will not fuse my spinal column, nor will it require plates, pins or bone grafts. With God's grace and Dr. Andrew's skill, the surgery is anticipated to restore almost normal function and mobility to my neck and eliminate a great deal of the pain with which I have lived for years.
Without knowing anything more than the above, my massage therapist self hears in this an injury that is likely to the upper cervical area, quite possibly near the juncture of the axis and atlas (C1-C2). I could be wrong, of course, but if there is damage to that area that could cause a lot of difficulty and pain in rotating the head, and can otherwise become quite debilitating after awhile. Bishop Howard is turning over the workings of the diocesan office to Assistant Bishop Charles Keyser and Canon Bob Griffiths while he is in California. He expects to be there for at least a week.
Not on our official prayer list, but in my own thoughts this morning was the repose of the soul of Ellen Frost. Ellen is the mother of a childhood friend of mine, Leonita, who was my neighbor for many years. My friendship with Leonita got off to a very rocky start: we didn't like each other while she was next door and we used to argue and fight. We became friends when I skipped fourth grade, and found myself in the same home room with her. I got badly used by a group of girls in my new fifth grade class, and was left friendless and feeling very alone. Somehow, being in this lowly place, put me together with Leonita whose mom was a homemaker and dad was a plumber. From this friendship, I learned love, respect and to appreciate people no matter their social status. It was through this friendship that I got to see how classist my hometown could be: those whose families were associated with the local prep school were treated differently by some of the teachers in our elementary school. To put it bluntly, the kids from working class families "didn't rate" with some of our instructors. Because I had friends in both the "preppie" and "townie" camps, I saw through this behavior by the adults, and knew it was wrong. So did Ellen Frost. She was a mama bear for her daughter, and wasn't going to let anyone put her child down. I appreciate how knowing the Frost family and being welcomed into their home helped me see an incarnation of God that I could have missed had I not found a friend in Leonita.
When I went off to prep school, my life, and Leonita's, went in separate directions. Not because I didn't care about her, but because every waking moment of my day was occupied with a school 20 miles away and it was all I could do to keep on top of what I was doing there. Leonita stayed at Exeter AREA High School, and when I told her I was not coming back to EAHS, we lost track of one another. It was only through Facebook that I was able to reconnect in these last couple years, and to keep informed about the ups and downs of her life as part of the "sandwich generation", caring for her aging parents while raising her own little girl. I know what it means to lose a parent after an illness, and so I included Leonita, her dad and her daughter in my prayers.
May light perpetual shine upon Ellen, and may God's love, grace, peace and hope fill the hearts of the Frost family during this time of transition.
1 comment:
Beautiful, Susan. I didn't remember how you and Leonita became friends and am so glad you have been there for her.
Peggins
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