Date: Apr 17, 2007 7:25 PM
Subject: cancel Gillie’s on Friday

Dear Friends,

I’m sorry to have to do this, but I’m going to have to call off our gathering on Friday evening in anticipation of my graduation. I was already considering this when I received more news.

On top of everything else, I actually got a call this morning from my mom saying that they put my dad in the hospital. He was at a doctor’s office getting a shot in his back for pain, and it set off a chain reaction in his body that looked like a cardiac or neural event–complete numbness up and down his left side, trouble walking and talking. He’s doing better now, and has gone through some tests. They’ve ruled out heart and have done a CAT scan. Nothing’s showed so far. He’ll stay in the hospital tonight and tomorrow will undergo another battery of tests. They suspect that it might be a narrowing of his carotid artery. But he’s doing much better tonight.

After going back and forth with my mom all day about whether or not I should come today, I’m leaving tomorrow morning. I just couldn’t go today because I was too tired and emotional to make the drive on my own after the week I’ve already had. If he’s alright, I suspect I’ll be back to Blacksburg on Sunday now, rather than Monday. And I’m definitely no longer going to L.A. for the NAAO conference next week. I don’t know when I’ll leave for Minneapolis now.

So maybe there will be time to reschedule before I go. Sorry to have to do this.

Love,
Shannon