12/2000
Dear
Family and Friends,
Considering
that 1999 was not a very exciting year for us (other than buying our house), we
decided to ring in the New Year right.
We spent it with Elizabeth and Don at Disneyland - arrived at 8:00 a.m.
and didn't leave until after 2:00 a.m., despite the rain and cool temperature
of 65 for California. Fortunately for us
most people from southern California stayed away from the park due to the
weather, and us hearty east coast people were able to maximize our ride opportunities. Over the next few days we visited with
friends, went to the Wild Animal Park (which is utterly fantastic and highly
recommended) then the San Diego Zoo where we spent two days and still didn’t
see everything.
In
early February Sean learned that he had been accepted to Temple University
Medical School, and I was accepted into the doctoral program for higher
education at the University of Pennsylvania.
I would keep working while getting my doctoral degree, and Sean would
begin medical school on a full-time basis in August. We then began to plan for our last hurrah
vacation - a trip to Ireland with Sean's family.
About
a week later we added another member to the “zoo at home.” While taking Hanna for a walk I heard a
rather load meow and went to investigate.
I found a young female cat under a tree, which looked pretty healthy for
being out in 20+ inches of snow. I
promptly picked her up, after handing Sean the dog's leash, and we began our
journey home. Pascal and Copernicus make
excellent big brothers, and Hanna is delighted to finally have someone younger
and lower on the totem pole. Cleo does
not revel in Hanna's delight about her current position and the two are not
exactly what one would call fast friends.
While
we were adjusting to the new member of the household, Mom Reilly let us know
that prayers were needed as Pop, Sean’s Grandfather, fought internal infections
secondary to surgical intervention for Diverticulitis. Unfortunately, he did not win the battle and
God called him home on February 17. Two
weeks later I attended another funeral for my friend Chris, who lost his battle
with AIDS. Both of these losses were
completely unexpected and made for a great deal of sadness in our hearts. Our sadness was to be added to in the ensuing
months as I began to realize that my Grandmother Darlington was declining
quickly. On May 1 the good Lord called
her home to many of her friends and loved ones.
It was a difficult day for me, as she and I had been incredibly close
throughout my childhood and young adult years.
She had provided me with a source of strength and love that was
boundless.
When
one has lost so many people in such a short period of time, it truly brings
into focus just how precious life really is, and why it is so important to
actively love and be involved with those who are special to us. God provided us with the greatest reminder of
the sanctity of life when I learned, on the morning of my grandmother's viewing
that Sean and I were to be blessed with our first child. It made for a very unusual day as I mourned
the loss of one who had taught me the meaning of love and family, and
celebrated a new life that would provide me with the greatest test of those
lessons.
After
clearing our minds and realizing that our lives were going to undergo a far
greater change in the winter, we began to rethink how we would be spending the
fall. It did not take me long to realize
that I did not want to work full-time, be a mother full-time and try to get a
doctoral degree. Considering that Sean
was no longer employed it seemed the smartest thing was to drop out of the
doctoral program and concentrate on my job and motherhood. Sean also began to feel the pressures of
taking care of a family and taking advantage of everything that medical school
had to offer on just my income. As we
looked at the loans for medical school, Sean decided that he would try to get a
full scholarship. Over the next few months we examined many options and
finally, after many hours of talking with recruiters and military physicians he
decided to pursue a career in the military and take advantage of their generous
scholarship program. He is now a 2nd
Lt in the Army reserve. It is definitely
not the course I expected us to be taking, but it should prove to be an
interesting life and provide us with lots of challenges in the years ahead.
Finally,
our summer vacation rolled around, Sean and I took off for London England in
late June. There we visited with Rick,
Jen and Eleanor. At that time we learned
that Jen was pregnant with their second child, Margaret – 10/30/2000. Eleanor, three years old, was being a very
generous big sister and when asked what the new babies name should be (they
knew it was a girl) she offered up the very nice name of Eleanor. Mostly, our visit with Rick and Jen provided
us with the R&R we were both craving.
After spending this relaxing time in London we flew to Dublin to join
the rest of the Reilly's for 10 days in Ireland. Mom Reilly had done a fabulous job of laying
out an itinerary for us and we had a spectacular trip. Very little rain and lots of castles!
While we were in Ireland, Analisa, a
medical student from U Penn agreed to stay at our house and take care of the
pets in exchange for the use of our car so she could do her medicine rotations. When we returned from Ireland, she still had
5 weeks left to go, and I was very grateful, as Sean was getting ready to pack
up and head for Eastern Tennessee with the youth group from his hometown
church. They did a missionary trip that
had him helping an Appalachian family renovate their home. He barely returned from Tennessee before he
was off for a week in Chicago with college friends.
A few days before Analisa’s scheduled departure,
August 6, I received a phone call from an acquaintance in the gymnastics
world. It turned out that Art Shurlock,
the coach from UCLA, had been here in PA when he suffered multiple heart
attacks and cardiac arrest. After, many
attempts to stabilize him, the doctors in Bethlehem realized he needed a
transplant and flew him down to HUP here in Philadelphia, for a heart
transplant. His wife, Alice, did not
know of a place where she could stay.
After asking if she liked rambunctious dogs and being told absolutely,
we invited her to stay with us while Art waited for a new heart. It was 1 month and 2 days later that we got
the phone call that a heart had been found.
The greatest irony to the story is that Art received his new heart on
his birthday – Sept. 8. Art spent the
next month recovering, and Alice patiently worked with us as we re-arranged her
bedroom into a computer/guestroom in order to transform the old computer room
into a nursery.
The transformation was amazing, and we owe
tremendous thanks to Mom Reilly (future Grandmother) for her wallpapering skills
and locating Sean’s old crib (with tooth marks); Grandma Reilly for donating a
beautiful old rocking chair, Pam and Jack for their generous offering of a 12
drawer chest and my mom for locating the perfect changing table. The closet is already starting to be filled
with clothes, and the shelves will be packed with books, one of the first was
from my dear friend Joni “The Velveteen Rabbit.”
We
are now well into Sean’s first semester of Medical school, at which he is doing
exceptionally well, and on the count down to Clark’s arrival (his full name
will be David Clark Reilly). I have been
blessed with a wonderful work situation, so that I can work from home for at
least 6 months in order to be here with Clark during his early
development.
We
wish everyone the best at the start of this new millennium, may it be filled
with peace and love,
x
