I went offline since December 2018, as I had just retired a few months before, had packed up and left Massachusetts and was settling into my new home with my long-time love, John, at his house in Connecticut. Then, just as I was getting fired up to pick up my blog again, John suffered several major health crises. After having undergone a successful angioplasty for two major blood clots/DVTs in his femoral artery, John collapsed in the Surgical Unit the very next morning on June 27, 2019, and suffered a catastrophic hemorraghic stroke, which he was not expected to survive. Fast-forward to last November 26, 2019, after critical brain surgery, over four months in Yale New Haven hospital, (including an unexpected emergency gall bladder removal via laprascopic surgery); then 28 days at an acute rehabilitation facility, another 24 days at a subacute rehabilitation facility…and my Miracle Man, (who was predicted by one neurologist [whom I shall only refer to as “Dr. Doom”], to only come back to me with 60% of his mental, physical and emotional faculties intact and require long-term in-patient care in a nursing home), came home two days before Thanksgiving Day with walker and a hockey helmet. He has graduated to walking with a cane only as needed outdoors, no helmet since December, cares for his personal needs 100% now, celebrated his 70th birthday, works on his computer, watches TV, reads, etc., and even drives his John Deere tractor to mow our lawn now! His long-term memory is completely intact (short-term is improving daily). He just underwent two procedures to successfully remove dense cataracts in each eye, and he’s literally seeing the world through new eyes. Driving will hopefully start up in the not-too-distant future. Despite COVID-19, we are looking optimistically to a brighter retirement for both of us!

Oh, and by the way, on May 29, 2020, 83 years after his parents said “I Do,” John and I did the same! He jokes that it only took 7-1/2 years, his near-death experience and COVID-19 for him to finally wear me down to say YES!