I AM NOT SAYING I had anything to do with it but . . . I am hard pressed to say it was a
coincidence. (Especially since I don’t believe in coincidence.) Two weeks ago I drove to
Pittsburgh to pick up my lovely, talented and now grandmotherly wife who had flown
up to see the precious little Adrian Gray who was born on the same day that my niece
Kristina was moved, to everyone’s great joy, to the cancer ward. As my brother said at
the time, “everything is relative.” When you have been in the intensive care unit, the
cancer ward is a move up. Only Kristina’s news could have beat out Carson and
Nathan’s birth announcement for sheer joy.
Anyway, when I stopped by Morgantown on Wednesday, October 27, where Kristina
was being treated in the West Virginia University Hospital, I gave her a gift I had bought
at Lil John’s Mountain Music Festival. It was small handmade rosin dispenser (with
aged rosin), like a fiddler might be wont to use. As I gave it to Kristina, I quoted to her
from one of the all-time greatest old-time songs, Jack of Diamonds (which is also
known as Rye Whiskey or the Drunkard’s Hiccups), which quote I hoped would be an
inspiration to her:
Gonna take down my fiddle;
Gonna rosin up my bow;
Gonna make myself welcome
Wherever I go.
Then on Saturday, November 6, 2010, her dad asked this question in the following
edited CaringBridge post:
Anybody know of a fiddlers’ convention with a category for “Best-fiddler-with-IV-line-
attached (old-time)”? Kristina’s practicing. [See the photo on left for Kristina’s new
therapy regime. Picture a fiddle hanging on an IV tree.]
Yes, here she is, finally got her baby back in arms. We walked around the halls and
found an empty room, where Kristina gave me (her dad Cliff) and Mike (her artist
boyfriend) a little concert.
As you can tell, Kristina’s in great spirits. As the doctors have said, all the staff talk
about how much they enjoy coming into Kristina’s room, because they know she’ll be
smiling and joking.
Oh, yes, why does Kristina have an IV line attached at all? We are pretty sure it is like a
Martha Stewart-style ankle bracelet. They think it may deter her from escaping again.
End Post.
Below is from his CaringBridge post from two days later:
[Note: My brother is not a caps-lock kinda guy. (When he once seriously considered
graduate study in linguistics, my thought was that he would specialize in punctuation.)
But there are days that demand the caps lock be turned on and left on. (But, let’s be
honest, he could have used more exclamation points!!!!)]
KRISTINA’S OUT OF THE HOSPITAL!
I [her dad] just received a phone call from Kristina — she’s in the car leaving
Morgantown and on the way to Elkins! She and Kerstin [her very Swedish mom] will
spend the night there, and then it’s on to Kensington tomorrow.
Yes, she was officially discharged. The white cell counts zoomed upward over the past
two days, so the doctors cut back on the antibiotics and antifungal medicines and
released her.
It’s hard to believe. It was four weeks ago, almost to the minute, that she was admitted
to West Virginia University Hospital’s cancer unit and then diagnosed with acute
leukemia. It was only a little more than two weeks ago that she was on life support in
the intensive care unit. And now she’s going home. It’s really a miracle. Thanks to
everyone at that hospital who helped save her life at all the different critical stages. And
thanks to all of you who gave her such strong moral support all the time.
But don’t stop now. Kristina will now begin, almost immediately, follow-up chemo
treatments designed to rid her of this disease completely. We can later give you more
information about what’s in store, but we know that it will last continuously for about
four months. At least in the beginning she’ll be [home] in Kensington and going to a
hospital or clinic for out-patient chemo treatments.
That’s it for now. I’m sure there will be more to write once we settle down a bit.
End Post.
And little Adrian’s doing great too. He’s sleeping like a baby. [See the photo on right for
proof. Imagine a photo of a week-old baby sleeping on a table.] (And yes, his dad was
standing right by in case Adrian moved — but they know this boy sleeps like a rock.)
Gary D. Gaddy has requested that Kristina work on the fiddle part for Jack of
Diamonds.
A version of this story was published in the Chapel Hill Herald on Friday November 12,
2010.
Copyright 2010 Gary D. Gaddy
garygaddy.com 