Patriots' Day 2014 and 2016

                                 

Women and children tend to the wounded

2016 photo by Maggie Lee

Patriots' Day 2016

It’s Tuesday, the day after Patriots' Day. Peter, Xiomara, and their kids leave for home, then Annie spends hours cleaning the house: sweeping floors, removing masking tape arrows from the floor (used to indicate traffic flow for our Patriots’ Day breakfast yesterday morning), vacuuming. I start washing the bedding from our house guests (my sister, Maggie, daughters R’el and Annie, Boston Marathon runner Matt (he did it!), and Peter and Xiomara and kids), who all came to celebrate Patriots’ Day (a state holiday in Massachusetts and Maine, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775) and to cheer Matt on.
 Monday was challenging for marathon running: sunny and in the 70s. Matt’s ideal is cloudy and in the 40s. A little rain isn’t bad, much better than blue skies and sun. It’s not too late to donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in support of Matt’s marathon effort http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/boston16/mjohnston. His goal is $26,218.75 (get it?).

I was grateful for my family’s support in preparing for our big Patriots’ Day breakfast. It was hard to muster the energy required preparing for our first Patriots' Day without David. Even without consciously focusing the painful memories surrounding the past two Aprils, when David was so sick, they weigh on me. But everyone pitches in and helps tremendously.
        Jim and the Arlington Ward Boy Scouts park 49 cars in our yard, with no car blocked. After the Battle of Lexington reenactment at 5:30 a.m. we feed about 125 people.
R’el and Matt leave Monday evening; Maggie and Peter, Xiomara, and kids leave early Tuesday afternoon. Annie cleans and organizes for hours, so my typical post-event letdown is gradual and gentle.

Patriots’ Day 2014                      

We have a successful Patriots’ Day in Lexington. David’s still inpatient at Wrenmimic (Walter Reed). The doctors sedate him and put a camera down his throat to discover the cause of his extreme esophageal pain: viral infection. An anti-viral eases the pain. His vision is still quite poor from the retinal bleeding, so he can’t read on his computer easily.
Monday evening we talk to David on the phone. Jim asks him if we should go to Utah the next day for our niece’s wedding. He doesn’t say ‘Don’t go’, but also is obviously not enthusiastic about our trip. We decide to go.
While flying to Utah on Tuesday, April 22, I feel my heartstrings stretch taut again. One end is attached to a military hospital room in Bethesda, Maryland. It’s not as painful as the day in South Station in Boston, but pain doesn’t have to be a ‘10’ to hurt. For two days I live on edge: will I need to return to Bethesda before the wedding in Salt Lake City? How will I know? The morning of the wedding I relax; if I have to cut my trip short at least I've attended the wedding. Back in Maryland David’s bishop visits David and reports that there is no need for us to rush back: David is feeling better.
The day after the wedding we drive with Sam to Brigham Young University, where he is a junior. The BYU Museum of Art has a special exhibit of religious art. For a donation I receive a beautiful portrait of the Savior, which I later frame and display. Next Tuesday, April 29, we fly back to Massachusetts.