Full to the brim

We had a housefull today. Danny and Jennifer and all the kids arrived at about 10 and Janet's mother, Pat, arrived in the early afternoon, 26 hours after becoming a grandmother for the first time. My friend, Val, came by about 4 with a six-pack for me. We sat out on the deck as Michael napped and had a beer and decided where in my back yard to put a croquet game, horseshoe pits and a badminton net.

I have what's left of an old badminton net in the garage -- a tangled mass of string and two bent poles. And I'm sure Rob has a set of horseshoes somewhere. He's quite adept. We figure the guys can play while we sit in the hot tub and say things like, "Is that a leaner?"

Mike loves having all these people around. Being the center of attention energizes him. But then his eyelids begin to droop and I chase everyone out of the room, plump his pillow, kiss him on the forehead and let him sleep for a couple hours before the party begins again. He nibbles on applesauce, bagels, cookies and other desserts. He loved today.

Danny is having a really hard time dealing with this. He sits with Michael for a little while and then has to leave. He has cried a lot, but not in Michael's room. Mike has gone from being the pain-in-the-butt little brother to being his hero. He's a lot of people's hero -- including mine.

My niece, Christina is flying in tomorrow night for a couple days. My mother and my youngest sister made her think about it before she came, just to make sure she's prepared to see him as sick as he is. She says it doesn't matter -- she needs to come. We tried to talk my mother into coming, but she just turned 83 and she says it would be too much for her. I think part of it is she's still grieving so deeply for my sister. Now we'll share something no two women should ever have to share.

We have more people coming this weekend: Christian from Savannah, three people from Cary, and of course all the folks who are here already. Michael has asked me to control the flow of people in and out of his room.

My dear friend Peggy called tonight. I told her about the housefull and she said she was glad she didn't stop by tonight. My door is always open to Peggy.

Mike woke up about 9:30 and wanted company for a little while, so we just sat there, not saying much except:

"Yep."

"Yep."