Many Updates

My grandmother Charlotte had knee replacement surgery a week ago today in Portland. She came through the surgery very well and now is in rehab in Camden. She arrived on Sunday and many were there to greet her. The days following I think she was a little over drugged as what she was saying didn't make much sense. She asked my mother how they cooked all the food for the place in the back of a pick up truck in the parking lot. Yesterday she asked me how my drains were. I asked her what was she talking about and she said wasn't I having trouble with my dishwasher drains. I went to see her today after work for a few hours and she is much better. We had a really great time talking even though she is still in a lot of pain. She knows she was a little loopy and has a good time laughing about it too.

Dave got food poisoning from something, but we're not quite sure what. He ate some packaged popcorn (I smelled some other packages last night and they did smell a little weird), some lemon yogurt cake I made over a week ago, some cream in his coffee from Maritime Farms and, to top it off, some Austen Peanut Butter crackers that are on the recall list (he had eaten some from the same bulk box before). So who really knows. All that could be thrown away has been and he is feeling much better... though very grumpy from having to shovel ice covered snow.

I had a third and wonderful shower at my church on Sunday afternoon. The church got me a nice cake with Noah's Ark on it (didn't have a camera) and a gift certificate to Target. My mom got me Bjorn Baby carrier - which I love. Molly got me two little man outfits - on with a zip up sweater and one with a blazer - so cute! I got lot's of other great things - diapers, wipes, blankets, slippers, clothes. It was very nice.

I have definitely been blessed by the outpouring of love from everyone!

I continue to get emails from people who are just hearing about Vinny from everywhere. I just got one last night from Alaska from someone who graduated with him. I am so honored to have such a great brother who made such an impact on so many people.

Speaking of great people - this should be a post all on it's own. Vinny's boss and friend Julian and Vinny's company have been such an amazing support and have done so much to honor his memory. When people came up from his work to his funeral, they said they felt like they knew my mother, Molly, Zac, my grandparents and me personally from all the stories Vinny told. Claudia, from Vinny's work, said that every story Vinny ever told her (I am sure there were many because he's a story teller) included something about my grandfather. When they had a memorial service in Virginia, many people came up to us and said they felt like they knew us because Vinny talked about us so much and loved us so much. I just think it's so wonderful they shared that. It really blessed me. When we arrived, they had a basket of fruit waiting in the hotel room. They had someone come and escort us to the memorial. The memorial was such an honor to Vinny - it was a real killer. They had a huge poster size picture of Vinny which totally made me bawl instantly. My grandparents proudly display it in their house. Better them because I don't think I could handle looking at it everyday. They had a slide show and testimonies. The testimonies were great. I should write some of them down. They did record everything, but no one wants to watch the DVD anytime soon. Julian did a fantastic job reading Vinny's poem. The whole thing was really sweet and meant so much to us they wanted to do it. They had a luncheon afterwards and we got to talk more to some of his coworkers. Not only did Julian set all this up, he called my mother around Christmas to invite us to the company Christmas party. He said he would pay for us to fly down. My mom told him she couldn't handle it and when she called me to ask, I said there's no way. Julian has been truly amazing and all of us feel connected forever to this man.




Another person I would like to mention is Saltanat. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about her broken little heart half way around the world. Vinny had been saying for years that he was going to marry her. When I was with Vinny in Maryland he told me he was getting a plane ticket and going over there to marry her and bring her back with him. I didn't always believe what Vinny said, but sure enough, he had purchased a plane ticket for mid August on July 3 - just days after I was with him and days before he died. Saltanat is so broken hearted because she loved him with all of her heart. She called just after he died and we cried together. She has called and emailed since then. She tells me how much he loved me and how much he loved his family. I just want her to know how much he loved her too! I know only God can comfort her. She called on Christmas Eve, but I wasn't here to answer the phone. She did talk to my mom and they bawled on the phone together for a long time - that's all they could do. Then my mom and I spent the rest of the night bawling. She may be coming here in March to see her sister in Florida. My mom wants to fly her to Maine. She calls me sister Rachael because she had already taken us as her family. Pray for this woman - she is very, very special.