Hello everybody!
I hope you are friends with Lea on Facebook because our last update here was more than half a year ago. Dirk's google+ channel has been very quiet too.
Here is why.
- On the good side, Lea's teaching last Fall went very well. Her evaluation committee was super enthusiastic and one person even said Lea is one of the best teachers at the whole campus. yippee!! Lea has really found a job that fits her like a glove and that makes her happy every day.
- I am still having a great time in my new career. A large project was finished successfully and I am now busy trying to set up all kinds of training for the office. Once a teacher....
- Jenna is doing great, she is turning to be quite the opposite of Delphine in some aspects: She is very strong willed, sometimes a tad loud and wild, and always outgoing and full of energy. She can write most letters and loves putting together large Lego projects.
- Meanwhile Delphine has made great academic progress, she read a big illustrated Star Wars book from cover to cover the other weekend -- this is up from our hard working first-words-in-English reader less than a year and a half ago. Reading proficiency has helped her in other subjects and it has also given her a lot more confidence. Delphine is has learned to play the clarinet and she builds wonderful things in mindcraft.
- On the not so great side, we are slowly growing out of our lovely rental home but Santa Monica houses are so expensive we are waiting a little.
- But a much larger problem was that Lea's mother Betty was diagnosed with lung cancer in October. It did not affect her daily life but we visited a number of doctors and agreed on immunotherapy, which she would receive in Los Angeles. We helped her a lot keeping up with her walking and her breathing exercises.
- Betty stayed with us a lot through Fall and this was great: We hung out, talked about a 1000 things, and went to the movies with her. Playing with the kids gave Betty extra energy and put a big smile on her face.
- Late November Betty received her first therapy. It went well but the therapy, combined with a cold that was going around, made her very tired. For the first time in years, she did not have any Christmas present ready early and she really hated this.
- In the end, we had a great Christmas: Lea's brother was here and Betty bought fantastic presents (with some help). Betty's birthday and New Year's Eve were all great, and we squeezed another big party in that last week of December.
- On December 29th, Betty was diagnosed with pneumonia. This explained her tiredness and she was sent home with a ton of antibiotics. But on January 1st, we took her to the hospital because the pneumonia was not getting better. Her oxygen level was low and the doctors were extremely worried about her survival.
- However, on January 3rd, Betty made a miraculous recovery. She was sitting upright in bed, she was breathing better and she was fully with it. We spent as much time with her as we could and we started making plans to move her to Santa Monica. Eddie was still in the US and he visited her every day.
- On January 19th, we drove to San Diego to bring Betty to a great care home Lea had found in Santa Monica. While we drove there, the doctors called to say that her health had taken a bad turn. When we arrived, she could clearly hear us but she could not respond any more. She passed away a few hours later, while Lea was holding her hand.
The funeral and reception were held last week Saturday. It was sad and happy, full of great memories. There was a reception afterwards at Betty's favorite restaurant, overlooking the San Diego Bay.
Thank you to everybody who was there, sent us cards or flowers, or just thought of us.
