SHARING THE SPOTLIGHT

About the middle of December, after my surgery, we went to Rejhaun's graduation. She is our future daughter-in-law. On this trip, we were meeting Rejhaun's family for the first time, and then packing Austin and Rejhaun's furniture, and bringing it back to our house for their move to Florida. Eugene went up a couple days early so he and Austin could go duck hunting at a special place where Austin had reserved a spot. They were sure to get their quota in ducks. They got up at the ungodly hour of 2 a.m., and drove 2 hours to get there on time, only to find out that they had Austin on the list for the day before. What a disappointment to Austin! But the really important thing was to have fun together, right? So they drove back to a spot near Warrensburg, and had a great day, anyway, shooting 3 ducks. During the day, Eugene's side started hurting, becoming so intense, that by the time he got back to the motel after dark, he couldn't get much relief, even with laying down and taking strong pain meds. He recognized the pain as a kidney stone attack. The pain began to ease somewhat late the next morning.

In the meantime, Cassie and I had started up to Warrensburg, driving through a blizzard. About 100 miles before we got there, the snow was stacking up until we couldn't tell where the edge of the road was, so we drove close behind an 18-wheeler and stayed there so we could follow his tracks. (I guess it's nice that he didn't run off the road!) Finally, about midnight, Cassie said, "I can't take this any more. We've got to get off this highway." So at the next exit, (not a town), there was a sign; "ATLASTA M TEL". Since I had left my map at home, (we knew the way, didn't we?) I didn't know how far it was to the next exit, so we stopped, and drove around and
d-o-w-n into the 'm tel' courtyard. The heavy snow made things look like a ghost town. The man at the desk acted kind of weird, grinning and swaying to the music from the TV, and glancing dreamily into the room around the corner, like he had a friend in there. We were a little spooked, can you tell? The room was decorated in 'original cheap 70's style'. But we knew the sink counter had been redone at some point, because to counter top was taller than usual, and repaired with painted plywood. The repairs were even old. The tub only had a little mold around the base, but there was enough hot water for one shower the next morning; mine. The sheets were old, but clean, and there was no blanket, only the bedspread. We got our one little snuggle blanket from the car, and put that next to us, along with my big coat, and laid like spoons in a drawer to stay warm. At any rate, we survived the night, and since I didn't have an ice scraper, a nice man from the next room cleaned our windows for us, and we were good to go. At the very next exit, there was a town with several nice motels (with complete words on their signs)! We made it the rest of the way with only one close call, where Cassie pulled onto the road in front of an 18-wheeler. (It would have been okay, except for the packed snow under all our wheels.) She saved us by turning completely off the road onto the shoulder, and letting him slip past.

We made it there, watched Rejhaun graduate with honors, ate lunch with her folks, packed the furniture, and started back home. Eugene said that the whole day his side didn't hurt him, but the minute we climbed in the van to go home (a 6-hour drive), his side started paining again.

Here we were, at dusk; the church van, trailer, and Cassie's car, packed to the gills with Austin and Rejhaun's stuff. A new blizzard hanging over us the whole way, packing a new layer of snow on top of yesterday's snow. And a kidney stone kicking up like birth pains in Eugene's side. Since my surgery had been so recent, neither Cassie or Eugene would let me drive. He was taking pain meds so I was worried about his driving abilities. The storm stretched the 6-hour trip to 9 hours. Eugene was asking Cassie to speed up more than 30 mph, and she (with both hands firmly squeezing the steering wheel) was saying she wasn't speeding up for anyone, that she had me with her, and I knew the way home. We switched up, and Eugene let me drive for about 20 minutes, and couldn't stand that anymore. There were vehicles in the ditch all over the place. He figured if I continued to drive, that's where we would be, too. It was a long harrowing Saturday night, I'm tellin' ya! I begged him to stop in Columbia, and again in St. Louis, where there were emergency rooms and doctors. Both times the answer was, "NO, I'M GOING TO CAPE WHERE I KNOW THE DOCTORS!" I called friends and got reinforcment to tell him to stop. The answer was "NO". I finally told him that since he thought he was dying, I guessed he was just trying to kill us all. About 4 a.m. we finally arrived in Cape. Everyone was completely exhausted! He dropped Cassie and me off at Beth's, and he went straight to the hospital. Needless to say, he didn't preach that Sunday morning. But they did send him home, later that day, and removed the stone on Monday. Then there was a stint, which he kept for a week, and another surgery to remove that. It was one of those horrible times that make you laugh, after the pain goes away.

At least, we did have a wonderful trip the following week, when we moved the kids to Florida.

So I told you that story to say this: Mama can't ever have her own crisis, and get all the attention. It's amazing what some people will do to get their share of the spotlight!
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