From My Sister Laurie

Eliot was admitted to the hospital on a Monday. I had Mondays off of work then and I was returning from the ReUse center when you called. I was ever so slightly disoriented on the spaghetti highway near your house and I took a wrong turn. Instead of ending up by your house I somehow stopped in a parking lot on the bank of the Mississippi at the U of MN campus. I listened to you talk about Eliot being sick and needing a blood transfusion. You didn't know it was The Cancer just yet. I could hear in your voice that you were scared. I tried to remain calm.

As soon as I got off the phone with you I called Heather. She has worked as a nurse in the Radiology department of Children's Hospital and I wanted to ask her what on earth would cause Eliot to need a blood transfusion. Her responses weren't comforting but she didn't talk about The Cancer either.

It was later that day when you called and told me Eliot was in the hospital with The Cancer. I was having coffee with a friend who is a social worker. I'm grateful she was there with me. I remember feeling a rush to help. You had asked me to come to the hospital to relieve you and I felt like I had to get there as soon as I could. Even though there was little I could do.