The Lighter Side of Things

Yesterday evening was a fun time at the hospital. I got there around 7pm. Dad was not in his room. I went to cau Nam's room and found him there, with cau Nam, cha Huy, co Lisa, Vui and Dung ( anh Quoc and Huy Hoang were out on a break). Cau Nam was on the bed with all sorts of tubes hooked up to both sides. Dad was sitting on a chair next to him, also hooked up to his IV saline bag and stand. The 2 fishing buddies re-united with all their gears, complete with poles, lines, and hooks, ... all of a diffrent kind! A weird and wild sort of comraderie all over again!

Cha Huy " adopted" cau Nam to be his dad, calling him by the term of endearment: Ba Nam. He said "Sooner or later, we all have to die. Right Ba Nam? The question is where do we want to go when we die". Cau Nam answered, " I like a place where the weather is cool." We all laughed. Then Ha came in the room. The audience just got more crowded, and more tuned in. Cau Nam and cha Huy got all hyped up, bouncing jokes back and forth. The 2 of them really click. Cha Huy had a wonderful way of letting cau Nam know what is coming and how to deal with it , and cau Nam played along with the reality of it all. I haven't seen cau Nam so alert and so spirited in a long time.

Then Dr. Shalan came in. Cau Nam talked to him and referred to anh Quoc as "my baby". When he found out anh Quoc was 41, the doctor said, "You made me feel like a fetus,.... because I am 34". Cau Nam felt close to the doctor and joked around with him too.

To all my long distance cousins,

I know you wish you can be right here with your Dad or your uncle in his time of need. You read our updates everyday. You feel a sense of gratitude, of gratefulness. You feel you owe us for everything. Well, don't be, don't burden yourself, don't worry. Believe it or not, amidst all the sadness and suffering of cau Nam, we enjoy our moments with him. We consider ourselves lucky to be here. We have the luxury of being... "down the street" from him. You think we take care of him, but we are merely learning to give back. You think we go out of our way, but we are only moving our way up. It's so uplifting to know that a little thing you do can mean so much to someone else.

So dear all long distance cousins, we feel your prayers and your thoughts. And we thank you for all your support. You really are the "wind beneath our wings". But remember, you are blowing, and we are flying. You do have the harder share!

We love you,
Huyen, on behalf of all my siblings