Very little was accomplished in March, other than getting a start on my vegetable seeds. Between Piper’s face operation, E’s chemical peel, ten days hosting our grandchildren and five days in Vancouver for E’s annual meetings with the transplant team, it was all we could do to stay up past 8pm let alone accomplish any of our long list of projects.

Piper recovered from his $2000.00 ordeal, with very few side effects and no discernable improvement in his patience for strangers. He is however very clingy to those he loves.

E’s horrible chemical peel healed enough to not scare the grandkids for their spring break vacation. Our granddaughter quite enjoyed scolding her Papa if he tried to touch his face when it bothered him. Two grandchildren (aged 5 and 10 months) who both sleep twelve hours a night are always welcome guests. Don’t tell anyone, but the secret to our survival taking care of them is that we go to bed at the same time as they do.

The baby sleeps in a playpen in our room, with the two dogs on our bed keeping guard. I was surprised they didn’t bark when he would talk in his sleep. If the dogs got up at all at night, we didn’t hear them, and they didn’t disturb the baby or our granddaughter in her room. I imagine the dogs embraced the temporary peace and quiet.

Our annual trip to Vancouver is always an ordeal. We are fortunate to have friends who opened their home, again, to us. I had caught a cold from the grandkids (not covid) so we weren’t able to visit other friends like we would normally do. We literally went to our various Dr appointments then went back to their place and were in bed by eight.

E is now twenty three years post heart transplant. He is a walking advertisement for the gift of life. Not to dwell on the subject too much but please encourage those you know and love to fill in their donor cards.

Our granddaughter made a cake to celebrate his 23rd heart anniversary. If you had told me in 1999 that he would still be with me in 2023 I would have A) never believed you and B) never sold our house.

But he is and we did and it turned out

pretty darned good.