Shock. I think they call it shock.

I so remember...I can still feel...the joy that flooded my being, my life, back in 2000, when Mike Ford got his new kidney. He'd been on the transplant list for a long time, but his health was so frail, infections so prone to popping up and persisting, that I thought it far more likely the timing would never work out, that whatever opportunities might come up would by need and circumstance turn out to be opportunities missed. And yet there it was, an opportunity that fit, was grasped, taken. Mike had his kidney and I was downright gleeful. I. Felt. So. Much. Joy.

So much joy, and so glad to be able to help, giving elisem a ride to the hospital less than 24 hours after Mike's transplant surgery, taking my laptop along so that while Elise and Mike visited, I could finish up some PROmote Communications work and spend some time writing my editorial for Idea #12. In that issue, I had the honor of publishing Mike and Elise's "Guy Fawkes Songbook" along with much other fine material.

And now, today, everything fragments in the face of the day's news, the day's reality. ( A few of the fragments )

Love and sympathy shared with all who loved and cared for Mike, accompanied by thanks for and lifelong appreciation of the considerable gifts he shared with us.