From Chicago

I sit in my sister Ellen's office writing this and she is in the hospital at Rush Presbyterian in downtown Chicago.

Yesterday she had a laminectomy. I am a big picture person, so I never exactly get the details - but this much I know - they had to do more than they thought on her surgery. And at the same time, because the bone tissue was soft, they could not do as much as they wanted.

Of course, nothing is for sure because tissue will be biopsied, but the resident who spoke to us afterward suggested that there was some cancer cells possibly in the thyroid, lungs and lymph nodes. This is not good.

Meanwhile, Ellen lays in her bed optimistic and ready to fight this terrible illness. It is hard to realize that three days ago she was relatively OK and now has a terrible awareness of tumors in her head and body.

As I look at her in bed she looks like my father and my brother Wayne. And herself - a very strong woman. After surgery, you can see that she is worrying about her family and trying to make sense of all of this.

Right now we have many more questions than we have answers.
I am a woman of God who knows that in the midst of this storm there is God who is loving, strengthening, healing and holding us all.

God have mercy on us all.
Amen