593 Riverside Drive - 34. Temperory Chapter 34 -- A KINDA URGENT NOTE -- a delayed, modern interlude.

Hi,

Kinda unfortunately -- maybe selfishly for me -- I had a brain stem stroke on October 2nd, 2023.

I'm OK, and my doctors -- there were about half-dozen of them and a school-load of nurses and aides -- say I should make a complete recovery. I also -- often much to the medical staff's dismay -- never lost most of my verbal skills. I told them about my childhood, and my parents' childhood, and my grandparents' childhood, and my... you get the idea... almost through the operation and month-long follow-up. And the rest of the book's twelve chapters are almost all plotted out and in those terms ready to post. In fact, I could have done that any time during my lazy summer. But I was letting the characters take their time to add their nuances. Stupid nuances in retrospect. Now they're lost in addition to a series of details that needed to be corrected.

Also, my mind and mouth are OK, but my already lousy vision is rottener. So I'm not sure how long this is going to take -- this is a 9" x 14" blur. But having been warned by nature, I'm going to get everything up as quickly as I can -- plot first, polish later. So if anything further happens to me, at least you'll know what happens to all of my relatives. The fictional versions of them my sister reminds me -- she's not at all happy with how they're turning out.

"Marilyn, I make up stories," I've reminded her. "I've done that since fourth grade. I tidy things up."

"Well, I can't tell what's true and what's not," she complains. "You mix my life all up." (This conversation wasn't quite so decorous, either, to tell one version of the truth.)

But back to my explanation:

Again, sorry for the interruption. I obviously had no control over my stroke, which would have ended details on schedule. One thing that saved my life was a doctor saying the equivalent of -- and my husband swears I made this up, but I thought he told it to me -- "Other than the stroke, he's really in too good shape to let go." That negated our "Do not resuscitate" order.

Meanwhile, back to Spring 1925. Soon.

Rich