DAY 8: Giving Books

Not much happened today. Mom's arm surgery wasn't until 5:00 p.m. Prior to that, Emily came and she and I spent the day talking in Mom's room.

The nurse today was a man named Mark. He was nice, and handsome. Emily said Mom would like him. I took a picture for her.

I gave Dr. Pinson, one of the trauma surgeons, a signed copy of my stock book. A lot of my subscribers are doctors, so I thought he might have an interest in investing, too. I'll also give one to Dr. Offner later when I see him.

Dr. Pinson, not known for his bedside manner, was surprised and looked at me sideways when he asked, "Is this what you do?"

I said yes, and asked him if he invests.

"Not very well," he replied.

"Then this will help." I patted him on the shoulder. "Anyway, thank you for saving my mom's life."

The message inside the front cover was along those same lines.

At break time from 2:00 to 4:00, Emily and I walked around Sloan's Lake again. I liked talking to her. We sometimes talked about the hospital, but mostly stuck to other subjects like scenes from movies.

One thing we touched upon was what we were doing a week ago. In the cafeteria for dinner together, I made the mistake of saying that, "Right now a week ago Mom was on her way here."

"No, she would have already been here," she said, and then broke into tears.

I rubbed her shoulder and let her talk about the accident. She did so in more detail than she'd gone into before. She said that she and Mom had been in strange moods that morning, not bad moods, just different.