Hi!
Finally got a computer again after 3 months! Talked to Dottie tonight to catch up on Lea. Hadn’t heard for quite a while but felt that must be good news in itself. Dottie e-mailed your update for today Oct 11 but I would like to be on your update list if possible. I continue to pray for the recovery we are all hoping for no matter how long it takes to get her back.

FROM: Dean
Oct 12 @ 12:04 AM

Dear Larry,
Thank you once again for including me in your chronicles. Lea is like an emerging butterfly coming out of a cocoon composed of a web of spidery tubes and IV lines. She has been submerged in a deep narcotic sleep for months and now she is ready to spread her iridescent wings in the sunlight of consciousness. You are smiling upon her like a benevolent and loving sun, warming the air around her and breathing life into her fledgling stirrings of new birth. The radiance of your love for each other will overcome the great hills which she still must climb, and one day she will fly away from her confinement and into your waiting arms.

FROM: Dallas
Oct 12 @ 8:26 AM

A lovely poem I found to share with you for Lea:

The Mansion Of The Pauper

I have traveled all my life far away from home,
Yet for all that distance crossed, I have never left.
Through the slow spanning of the seasons
The passion in my heart moved the winds to whisper,
In the swaying of the trees, to breathe my lover’s name.
Nor is it simply the play of the sun upon
Those distant rocks and distant streams that always brings
Forth the splendid beauty of her gentle face;
Nor even the sound of my breathing becoming hers
In the warm immediacy of our embrace.
It is simply that wherever I have been,
As long as I remember the touch of her hands,
I will be sleeping safe in her sanctuary.
It is simply that this city, these winding streets,
This vast mansion of our mutual construction,
This expanding home we created for ourselves,
And imagined also for the ones whom we love,
This has simply become the living world itself:

So that when I stand on the ocean’s palisades,
Overlooking some storm-wrenched and alien sea,
I can expect to turn from the cold, howling winds
And find her standing there in the grassy fields,
A loving smile upon her lips and arms outstretched,
As if I had but turned corner in a hallway
And discovered after all that I am home.

So that when I am lost among the barbarian hordes
That maraud the empty steppes with wine and fire,
Still to the starry night sky I will lift my gaze from Earth;
I will look into the infinite mirror of my soul,
And see her shining eyes in the dark of the next room,
Waiting for me to drink my evening glass of wine
And come eagerly as slave to her tousled sheets.

For as long as she exists, so will I exist;
Whether we are both prisoners of this vast world,
Forever trapped by the invisible barriers
Formed of space, energy and ever-flowing time;
Or whether this world is our colorful palette
From which we as free spirits paint the boundless span
Of our mutual existence upon the sky:
To me, no matter; all that matters stems from her:
Our loved ones, our quiet rooms, our tall porticos,
Our cities made of iron, flowers and glass,
Our roads that lead out into the wilderness,
Our mountains and rivers and cloud-swollen skies,
Our storms and stars, our world of dreams.
It is to her that I am eternally returning,
To her crystalline eyes and mysterious depths.
I know it is only she who plays my heartstrings,
Who playfully tugs at my restless soul.

Copyright © 2005 by Randal Perkins

FROM: Link
Oct 12 @ 3:17 AM

Pictures for mom:

Sunset from our lanai

Deanna with birthday sunset

Lyndi and Megan under the paipai with Freddy

FROM: Lance
Oct 12 @ 10:26 AM

Picture of Kristin and I after sunset on a bat-watching boat tour in Austin.

Lance

FROM: Michelle
Oct 12 @ 12:29 AM

Dear Larry,
I had hoped to come over and say hello today or tomorrow, but am myself a little congested today so will wait. (Especially given the update. So sorry to hear about the fan and fever.) I shared a bit of Lea’s story with the First Baptist folks in West Hartford on Sunday as an encouragement to prayer. Thank you again for your open hearts. God bless and keep

FROM: Shana
Oct 12 @ 11:23 AM

Hi Larry,

Just want to let you know that part 2 of the items collected for a care
package are on the way. We still have one more box of “goodies” that I
will send on in a couple of weeks. Hope you guys have a good day today!

REPLY FROM: Larry Vaughn
Oct 12 @ 12:14 PM

Thank you, Shana. Thanks again to everyone for their love and support!

FROM: Marlowe
Oct 12 @ 10:31 AM

Dear Larry and Lea,

Today’s meditation seems to be one that I am called to share with you:

MESSAGE OF THE DAY

The same loving God who cares for you today
will take care of you tomorrow and every day.
God will either shield you from suffering or
give you unfailing strength to bear it.
Be at peace, then,
and put aside all anxious
thoughts and imaginations.
- Francis de Sales

(Trusting in God’s providential care . . . the way to peace.)

It is a joy to read of Lea’s incredible progress. How amazing that she is off routine pain medication, and will soon be able to talk! It is wise when things don’t go according to plan to look back and recall how far she’s come. We continue to pray for the Lord to bless you both with strength, peace and patience.

FROM: Kathy
Oct 12 @ 6:42 PM

I had lots of people call me and said they didn’t receive last nights e-mail so I am just sending it to everyone in case more then the ones that called me didn’t get it either.

REPLY FROM: Larry Vaughn
Oct 12 @ 8:40 PM

If they are on the same distribution list that you are, it has to be their mail server, because it all leaves here at the same time. Thanks for forwarding the updates to them. Love to you both.

FROM: Jean
Oct 12 @ 8:47 AM

Stanley has a solution to the transporting of Lea back to Indy. I told Pam last night about it, she noted some flaws, so I told Stanley.

He suggested that he could rent a camper to go on his pickup and he’d haul it back to Indy. Pam noted that it would need to be warm and that it was against the law to have anyone in the pickup bed without access to the front cab.

He, of course, does not think it is against the law and said that he would get a butane heater to put back there to keep warm and that Pam could be back there too.

UMMMMMM, Never tell a Texan he is wrong! I’m pretty sure you will want to decline his kind offer. Love you guys.

REPLY FROM: Pam
Oct 12 @ 1:33 PM

Does this mean you and Stanley are going to drive to Illinois to get me on the way to Connecticut? Jim has a chain saw that we could use to provide access to the back, thereby eliminating the concern about heat and all that stuff . . .

REPLY FROM: David
Oct 12 @ 4:52 PM

Yep on declining the offer. Nice thought, though. We have a truck here in Hartford, if that were an option. We have to pursue an option that includes nursing support and equipment. If only we had built that chuck wagon!!!

FROM: Shana
Oct 12 @ 4:28 PM

Hi Larry,

Me again…twice in one day! I just talked to Sherri and she said she
would like to come visit Lea. I, of course, told her I would like to come
back. So……do you think Lea would be up for a visit Oct 24th (or 23rd)
through October 26th? We have just started looking at airfare and the
possibility of us being able to make the trip, but wanted to get your
thoughts.

If you don’t feel like this will work, please don’t worry about hurting our
feelings if you think Lea isn’t up for the visit. I have copied my home
e-mail address since I may already be gone from work by the time you get
this. I’ll look forward to hearing from you!

REPLY FROM: Larry Vaughn
Oct 12 @ 8:22 PM

Lance will be here Oct 21-24, leaving at 11:00 or so Monday the 24th. David should be leaving the week before. If we could work your visit right after Lance’s, it should be just great. I would expect her to be in excellent spirits by then. What a wonderful idea!

One note, however: Dr Mah has started a dialogue with our personal physician, Dr Miller, in Noblesville, to discuss Lea’s treatment and recovery in Riverview Hospital. We don’t know when she will transfer, etc. It could be a couple of months. I’d just be careful that you purchase tickets that can be revised or refunded, just in case it happens sooner.

I just remember that when they decided to tansport Joe back home it took 45 minutes after the decision was made to get him on the plane and out of here!

REPLY FROM: Shana
Oct 12 @ 10:40 PM

Larry,

Sherri and I just booked our flights. We will be coming in on Monday, October 24th and leaving October 26th. How’s that for right after Lance leaves?! Once I receive the actual itinerary, I will e-mail it to you.

I will be off work that week and Sherri’s boys are on Fall Break Thursday and Friday, so it should work out well for us. We are both looking forward to seeing you guys! Talk to you soon!