kevdonahue

Virginia and I caught Solitary Man at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. A woman from the Institute spoke to us before the film started and said we’d see Michael Douglas “as we’d never seen him before” and then we watched the same ol’ Michael Douglas playing the same ol’ role. It was Gordon Gekko after the SEC gets finished with him. We enjoyed it all the same, but this is Wonderboys II.

Speaking of movies, don’t miss our friend Sandy’s list of favorite movies. Your sneak peak? No. 2: Crossing Delancey. No. 1, and the rest, are here.

IMG_0062, originally uploaded by kevdonahue.

A pretty sunset before fireworks in our hometown. Virginia and I watched from Eskie Park.

IMG_0013, originally uploaded by kevdonahue.

That’s Pete with his (second) cousin Tommy. We were all in Hazlet, at the Stansfields, on July 3. All had a good time. My nephew Nick did the most amazing victory dance after winning a yard game, but I’m not sure the world is ready to see it. Photos from the weekend here

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Virginia’s showing off our first cherry tomatoes of 2010. Which is great, because it’s getting ungodly hot (100-plus) for the first half of the week and none of us can remember the last time it rained nor when it’s supposed to rain next. Also, we have a groundhog trying desperately to get into our garden. But we’re in Churchill mode — “we’ll fight on the beach, in the air, in the backyard. We will never surrender!”

poppop_wedding, originally uploaded by kevdonahue.

What a great photo! Sal Congello at the top (center) of the steps. Betty, Aggie, and Margie as bridesmaids, Mary Beth as a flower girl. More photos from my dad’s life here.

Kelly was discharged from Children’s Hospital (above) about 2:30 pm Saturday, after 10 days there. He’s feeling much better than when we arrived, and we’ve got a plan moving forward. For the rest of the weekend, we’ll work on getting him stronger and ready for life outside the hospital, otherwise known as “the real world.”

The Donahue Clan post-reception, originally uploaded by kevdonahue.

This is the last photo I have of my dad out and about, here at Billy and Sandy Curth’s wedding in January. It’s a good-looking crew, don’t you think?

Those aren’t real stars to the right, though they are the ones we’ve seen way more than the real version over the past nine days and nights. They’re what you see when you look up while riding the main elevators at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Finally, it seems we’ll be out—for real—on Saturday morning. The doctors had our hopes up that we’d leave Friday, but a couple nagging issues (a low hemoglobin number, some toilet issues) had them asking for an extra day. And so here we are on a second Friday night.

Before we go home and move on, a couple things need to be said:

• We cannot thank everyone for all the care, thought and support we’ve received in the last couple weeks. Friends, family, hospital staff, bosses, co-workers … so many people have reached out and held us close with their thoughts and actions. You made a difficult situation easier, and helped us get our son back on his feet and to a healthier place.
• Kelly was a real trooper. Suffering isn’t easy, and he doesn’t come by the ability to overcome and transcend it easily. But when I think about how difficult a similar episode was three years ago, I am so impressed by how far he has come.  This was not a comfortable week, and yet he maintained (for the most part) his good nature and an eye on the ultimate goal—to get better. He made me proud.

That said, a few things need to be clarified for Kelly:

• No more eating in bed
• No more in-bed service of any kind
• The lawn, it needs cutting
• Wearing the same T-shirt three days in a row is back to being unacceptable
• What we eat matters, and we’ll be making some changes to cut down on the refined sugar, which the smart people now think has a fair amount to do with which bacteria live in your gut, and what they do down there. Try not to think about it; it’s kinda gross. But it also determines whether we do what we want to do, or if we sit in a hospital room.
• Always know that your mom and dad are there for you. These times are really hard, but we all seem to come out of it closer. That’s good, but I’d prefer we try bonding over board games for a while. After sleeping on a bench 5 times in 9 days, my back would appreciate it.

In gratitude,

Kevin

Elkmont Synchronous Fireflies #1, originally uploaded by Judd Patterson.

It’s been quite a month. Four weeks ago today, my dad passed away. Over the month before that, and the month since, Kelly has battled a persistent flareup of his inflammatory bowel disease—serious enough that on Thursday last week he was admitted into the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Except for the slow resolution of Kelly’s issues (he still hasn’t quite turned the corner, though we’re getting a handle on it), a lot has gone right: friends, doctors and nurses, Virginia, Kelly himself … everyone has really stepped up. So I got home tonight from the hospital with orders to tune-out and relax. I ended up on my back deck about an hour after the sun went down. Beer in hand, I watched an unbelievably vibrant scene as thousands of fireflies blanketed the trees and flitted across our large yard. Above me, the moon was bright and you could make out stars in the night sky—and I was reminded that whether I look up or out, I am surrounded by lights of love and concern, and that I want to approach this latest crisis with a spirit of gratitude. Now comes the hard part—getting my chest to loosen, finding my breath, and trusting that everything is going to be alright … because it will be.

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We never included a link or mention of the fundraising walk we went on a month ago to raise money to combat Crohn’s and Colitis. With about 20 friends, we made about $1,500. And we met Cookie Monster. Awesome job! Photos here