Italy Update

My friend Carolyn and her family are back in their routine in Cesena. Recently, Carolyn let me know that her Mom had suffered another setback with her bowel problem, and had been hospitalized again. But all is evidently fine again.

I remember one fall Sunday when my roommate or someone in Munich invited me to go out to Cloister Andechs, a S-Bahn trainride away from Munich. One Sunday we went out and attended a church service, exiting the train and making a trek around a village and up a hill to the castle of sorts. The buildings were right out of the middle ages.

After the service, a monk motioned everyone to go out the side door of the church into a bright courtyard where I was surprised to see a full-service restaurant with a commanding view of the countryside. There were several chickens roasting, a bunch of kegs, and what-not. But what surprised me the most were the kegs of beer. The monks specialized in brewing beer. That blew my North American Protestant mind.

Carolyn took her family to Munich in August and they visited Andechs. Here's a funny picture of Antonio from that trip (and no, he wasn't really drinking beer).

More pool party pictures....

So here's more pictures of that pool party day back in June where Carolyn, her Mom Marianne, Alberto and the kids came for a swim and dinner.

Carolyn's Going Home to Italia....

I drove Carolyn to SeaTac airport this morning to catch her flight back to Europe. She stayed an extra 10 days to take care of Marianne while she recuperated from her emergency surgery. Carolyn's brother Chris arrived yesterday from Texas to take over caretaker duties from Carolyn, and so we sped off in the wee hours this morning so she could catch her flight.

It was great to have Carolyn visit this summer, and for an unexpected longer time than at first anticipated. It gave us some extra time to catch up. I found these pictures of her kids on David's computer from the year 2000 (on the left), swimming in our pool. I'd forgotten how little Antonio and Camilla were when they first came to visit us.

Now, the little buggers are quite a bit bigger. They came for a pool party in June (right), soon after arriving here for their summer vacation this year. Even though it was cloudy that day and looked like it could rain any moment, they still dove right on in and had a wonderful time.

Carolyn's Mom, Marianne.....

I got an unexpected phone call from Carolyn on Friday early a.m. Carolyn was back in Portland because her mother had collapsed at the airport, was rushed to the hospital and given emergency surgery for divertriculitis - basically her bowel had ruptured and it could have been a disaster without quick treatment. Marianne is fine and recovering well, but will be in the hospital for about a week before she can go home.

So Carolyn and Alberto are back in Portland for awhile. Their kids are still in Montana with Carolyn's family, but are scheduled to be back in Portland Saturday evening. I think Alberto and the kids will go home next week, but Carolyn will stick around to nurse her Mom back to health.

(Secretly I am overjoyed to have Carolyn here a little while longer.....!!!)