Phone home.

“You sound like a robot.”
“Ok. I’ll call you back. Maybe its a bad connection”

This dialog was becoming more frequent when I would call Erica — until the day last week that my mother observed that this was only happening when Erica answered the phone on her right ear. After a little testing, we confirmed that Erica’s right ear hearing was not as loud or crisp as the left. (Pause here for a Yay! Did you catch the point that Erica was answering her phone?)

Erica expressed her hearing concern to her oncologist on Wednesday while at her treatment and checkup. Unfortunately, they could not see anything wrong. Good news, right? No, not when every symptom brings out the worst fear. Good news would have been a ball of wax or even an ear infection. But now we are waiting to see an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor and praying that this is not another symptom of brain complications. If you are the praying type, please pray specifically that this is not cancer-caused, for peace (for both of us) while we wait, and for miraculous restoration.

But a little ear trouble can’t slow Erica down!
Some may recall that we had a trip to Germany planned in April to visit Erica’s best childhood and life-long friend, Jill. That trip was cancelled by Erica’s hospital stay in March. Jill and Erica were finally reunited this week when Jill came to Pittsburgh — reliving their childhood at the Smurfs movie, getting sick on popcorn and milkshakes (To be clear, these were not memories, they actually went on Saturday night to the Smurfs movie and got sick on popcorn and milkshakes). Later in the week, Erica was able to visit Jill at their childhood stomping ground, Lake Floyd, a small private lake in West Virginia. A day at the ‘beach’, the grassy lawn that leads to the swimming area, is peace for her soul. That evening, I asked what she and Jill did all day.

“Not much. Just sat in the Adirondack chairs all day.”
“Really?” I asked, “How was that?”

“It felt like home.”