Weather

Mum sends me this in an email late last night:

I have ice on the insides of my windows. We have a wind chill advisory. We are at -20 degrees and the expectation is it will go to 40 or 50 below before morning. it will only be a couple of days this cold and it is already the middle of February. Remember when dad was in the hospital and the daytime temperatures were 30 and 35 below? I remember Ron VV taking me to see Dad in his truck.

I remember it well.  I had the night shift.  I'd sleep during the day, and head to the hospital around 7:00 in the evening.  I'd sit up all night in the visitor's lounge just outside the ICU.  I'd talk to Lynn on the phone.  I'd read.  I'd drive back to Mom & Dad's house at dawn.

I remember the night that we almost lost him, when his lungs filled up and the cute ditsy nurse turned into a tyrant of healing energy, calling me from the lounge to help pound on his chest while she drained fluid.  I remember the intensity of the look in her eyes as she worked and willed him to keep living.  And how she calmly slid back into cute and ditsy when he was stabilized.

And finally, a few days after the beginning of the new year, he seemed to be through the crisis and Mum convinced me it'd be good for me to go down and see Lynn.  She and I were still trying to convince ourselves that we were just friends, but there was certainly no friend I wanted to be with more right then. 

The day before I left, the temperature had risen enough for another blizzard, and then it plunged back to twenty below.  I drove to the airport between six foot snowbanks, not even minding the cold, because that's just the way it is in Wisconsin.

The next day Lynn served me lunch out on her deck.

That was twelve years ago.