Feb 27 - Mar 1 2008

February 27-March 1, 2008

After cleaning the trailer Wednesday morning, we headed for Tucson. Sharon fixed a lovely steak dinner for us and then we went to the Tucson Mall to walk around and have some ice cream. As we sat down with our ice cream a lady walked up to Robert and said, “Do you know a little place called Cibecue?” It was Myrna Ivins. She and some of her siblings are in Tucson because their father, Cecil, had open-heart surgery at the University Medical Center today. They said he was doing well.

Thursday we had a lovely day sightseeing in Tucson. First Sharon, Robert and I went to Sabino Canyon. We rode the tram around the canyon, planning to walk back, but several of the bridges were covered with water to we stayed on the tram back to a dam, got off and walked about 1 mile back to the visitors center. It’s a beautiful, peaceful place. A must-see in Tucson.

We went back to the condo and picked up Ray, then went to the Sonora Desert Museum for the afternoon. We saw lots of wildlife, including an adorable baby owl, and learned a lot about the plants of the desert. This is the most we’ve learned about the desert in all the time we’ve been here and it was very interesting. We also went on a lovely ride through the desert on the way home. It was a dirt road and the desert plants were up close and personal. We finished the day with dinner at Boston Market.

After dinner we left Ray and Sharon at the condo and went to the hospital to visit Cecil. We got there about 7:00, but found we couldn’t get into his room because he’s still in the ICU and they don’t allow visitors from 6:00-8:30 while they change shifts. We went downstairs and ran into his whole family: Myrtle (wife), Myrna, Sharon, and Paula (daughters), Mike (son), Nada (daughter-in-law) and 1 grandson, but we can’t remember his name. We debated about what to do, as we didn’t especially want to sit around the hospital for an hour, but we also didn’t want to come back in the morning. We decided to wait, so we entertained ourselves by reading hospital magazines that were 2-3 years old, and we’re not making that up. Finally we went up to see Cecil and Myrna was waiting outside the ICU for us. She asked how we got upstairs without a pass. We didn’t know we needed a pass, but no one stopped us. We finally got to visit with Cecil and Myrtle. Cecil seems to be doing very well. They took off life support 3 hours after the surgery and this morning he was actually able to get up and walk around the hospital. He told the family that last week when Pres Bonito and Robert gave him a blessing he saw a bright light when they put their hands on his head, and he felt the Spirit surge through him. He said he received such a powerful blessing because the men blessing him were good men. Then he told his children that he was sharing this miracle with them, and now it was up to them what to do with it. Sharon told us about it and it was obvious it had made an impression on the family. Cecil has such great faith. He’s a powerful man.

Friday we went to see Dr. Walsh for the last time. What a disappointment. Their computers were down and they do everything on computer. Dr Walsh said they have two servers and both of them crashed. So she barely knew who we are. She didn’t have Robert’s blood tests available, or his previous records, so there really was nothing she could do. Our main objective was to get his records and take them home to our new doctor. Couldn’t do that either.

To console ourselves we stopped at the Nike outlet and bought new walking shoes. I told Robert that if he takes them out of the box, or even out of the truck, while we’re on the reservation, I’ll throw them away. We got back to Cibecue about 6:30. The Elders didn’t come to Cibecue Wednesday like we had expected. We don’t know why. Our telephone was disconnected as we expected, but we had TV until sometime after midnight and the Internet was still working.

Saturday morning I had some of the girls over to bake cookies. They have asked since before Christmas if they could come over and do something with me, so I finally gave in and invited them today. Big mistake! Huge! They were brats. I finally took them home early and threw half the cookie dough in the garbage. I didn’t even eat a cookie, a rare moment for me. The biggest reason is they couldn’t keep their hands out of the dough. Every time they got ready to mix something they mixed it with their hands, which is what they see their mothers do. However, I didn’t see any girl wash her hands and that was enough to keep me from being tempted to eat anything.

Rochelle Ivins (Thelma and Alfred’s daughter) and Naysha Lupe stayed with me all afternoon because their parents weren’t home. Alfred and Thelma went to pick up Boy Scouts from their camping trip and Naysha’s family all went to a Wake in Whiteriver. Sharon arrived about 3:00 and she played a game with the girls, then visited for a long time with Thelma when they got back. She went with me to take Rochelle and Naysha home about 5:30. Abbitt had invited us to diner tonight, but they weren’t home all day and finally about 6:00 he came over and said they wouldn’t be able to do it. We’d already pretty much guessed that. So we cooked pork chops for dinner and then, since Sharon had a pretty good taste of life on the rez, we finished off with a visit from a woman who had been beaten up by her boyfriend. She was pretty frightened and wanted a ride to her home in Hollywood Hills. We took her then called the police and asked them to check on her. Sharon asked if we ever wondered if we were being “set up” for something dangerous when people come to the door like that late at night. And of course we think about it. But we feel like we need to help when we can and hope we’ll be safe.