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This page contains pictures that don't involve a trip or something similar. It will include pictures taken around my house or Fred's, and the occasional event that did not result in much picture-taking. You can use the page index at the top of this page to go directly to one of the sections on this page.

March 10: Memorial Service for Chris Young

Chris Young, former partner of Ron Mathis, had been fighting cancer for over a year the last time we saw him on a trip up to visit him in Sherman on March 1. At that time, the efficacy of his treatments had run out, and he was on hospice care at his home. We all had the intuition that this would be the last time we would be able to talk to him, and, indeed, it turned out that he passed away less than 48 hours later.

Chris's sister, Tammy, called with the news just a couple of days before our scheduled trip to Las Vegas. She told us that it would take some time to get all the notifications out and that the memorial service would not be held until Tuesday, March 10- the day after we returned from Las Vegas. So I helped her with the obituary and getting it into the papers, and we went ahead with our trip to Las Vegas. We returned on Monday, March 9, and Fred went on to his house to take care of things, and we resolved to pick him up the next day for the trip to the service in Sherman.

On the 10th, I picked up Greg and a friend of Chris's- Richard- who lived near me in Dallas. The three of us drove up to Van Alstyne, picked up Fred, and drove on to the funeral home in Sherman. The service, conducted by Tammy and Ron, was a very nice one, and, afterward, most of the attendees went over to Chris's house for a reception.

It was here that I took the only pictures of the day, and I have put thumbnails for them below, and you can look at the pictures by clicking on the thumbnails. I didn't know all of Chris's friends and relatives, but I will name the ones I did:

Fred and I have known Chris for almost fifteen years, and we will miss him.

April 4: A Movie Outing at Northpark Mall

Today we've come to NorthPark Mall to the AMC Theatre to see "I Love You, Man." Our friends Mario and Steve have joined us. We had lunch at Panera Bread Company afterwards. I just took a couple of pictures today, and these were taken with my iPhone (more as a test than anything else). Anyway, they both show Fred with some of the cactus planters that are out in the main aisle of the mall.

April 7: Lunch with Lynne and Carol

One of Lynne Richardson's friends, Carol, was diagnosed with cancer over a year ago, and has been undergoing treatments with her doctor. She and her husband actually live in Oman, where he husband works as a maintenance advisor for equipment purchased by Oman. She returns to the United States periodically to see her doctor and usually also goes by way of London to see her family.

On this trip back to the States, Lynne wanted to do something special with her, and asked me if she and Carol might use our Florida condo for a long weekend, and of course I was happy to have them do so. I have met them for lunch today so that I might pass on a set of keys to her. She and Carol plan to relax and also spend some time with Ron Drew and Jay.

We met at On the Border over on Knox Street, and had a pleasant lunch. In the picture at left, Lynne is on the left, and they have posed enjoying the food they have ordered. I gave them all the particulars about the condo, and oriented them to the area, and I hoped that they would have a great time.

Postscript:
I am writing this after their return from Florida, and they have both told me that indeed they had a wonderful time.

April 7: Dinner with the Guys

This evening was the occasion of Greg's friend from New York, Josh, to be in town visiting his parents, and Greg asked a number of his friends to join him at a restaurant down on McKinney Avenue, Tom-Tom, for dinner, so that we could all meet Josh. Of course, I took some pictures at dinner, like the one at right, that shows, from left to right, Greg's friend Bryan (in the shadows), Greg, Bud, John Toohey and Chet (Bud's partner). John Lambert, John's partner, had a Turtle Creek Chorale rehearsal that night and couldn't attend. Below are thumbnails for two other pictures I took that evening; click on them to view the full-size images:

Bryan is an anthropology student that Greg met at a local restaurant some weeks ago, and Josh works in real estate in New York City. Josh and Greg will be using my condo in Florida for a few days later this month when Josh is attending a swim camp there and Greg take a short vacation to keep him company. Josh, apparently, belongs to a New York City swim club, and they have competitive meets with other clubs in the city.

Postscript:
As I write this in the middle of May, I know that Greg and Josh found the condo very enjoyable and that they both had a good time.

April 24: Dinner at Mario and Steve's

Mario's parents and sister arrived in Dallas for a visit on Thursday, and Friday night Mario and Steve invited Fred and I over to see them and to have dinner. Fred and I met Mario's parents on one of our trips to Florida last year, and it was a pleasure to see them again. We have met Martika, Mario's sister, a number of times. Mario's mother did the cooking, and everything (a pretty much Cuban menu) was delicious. Fred and I took just a few pictures at dinner, and I have put thumbnail images for them below. Click on those thumbnails to view the full-size pictures:

December 4-6: Fred Has a Heart Attack

If you've come to this account of Fred's heart attack from another album page, then you've missed a bit of background. On Thanksgiving this year, November 26th, Fred had been feeling poorly, he told me after our guests had gone. When I asked him what he meant, he said that his blood pressure had been quite high during the afternoon, although it was back down when we talked. So he, and I, chalked his poor feeling up to that. As it turned out, he'd had another symptom he chose not to mention.

The next week, Fred and I took a trip to San Antonio to meet up with Guy Blair at Ron and Prudence's B&B- Ruckman Haus. We drove home on Friday, December 4th. We were coming through Austin when Fred first mentioned to me that he wasn't feeling well. It was an odd feeling, he said, much like what he'd felt on Thanksgiving. This time, his skin seemed tingly and he felt jumpy, in addition to the dull headache. We again thought it was his blood pressure and, although I offered to stop somewhere, Fred urged me to continue on home to Dallas.

He seemed not to get any worse as we finished the trip up to Dallas, but he wasn't getting any better, either. As soon as we got home and pulled into the garage, I told him I'd bring everything in and that he should probably go in and lie down for a while. As I was finishing bring everything in, he came and told me that he'd taken his blood pressure and that it was something like 180/120- very high, even for him. (Fred has been taking Norvasc, a blood pressure medication, for a couple of years now.) I really didn't know what we should do. I put in a call to my own doctor and to Dr. Whitley in Florida. I didn't reach Brent, but my own doctor's nurse called me back and said we should probably go to the emergency room and have him checked out.

What we decided to do was go up to the Primacare near where my Mom used to live; Fred had been there once before (for exactly what I have forgotten now). We got there about six-thirty and had to wait just a while before Fred was called back to an exam room. They took all his vitals, and asked him how he was feeling. Fred said that he was feeling tight in his chest and that his arms and legs felt odd, and that he'd felt this way for most of the trip home from San Antonio. This was news to me. He also told the doctor that he'd had the same feelings when his blood pressure spiked the previous Thanksgiving. This was also news to me. Of course, the dull pain in his chest was the telltale sign. The doctor hooked Fred up to an EKG and his conclusion was quick: Fred was having a heart attack, and he went to make some arrangements to get him to the hospital.

In the few minutes that he was gone, I told Fred that if he had told me all of what he was feeling on Thanksgiving, I would have gotten him here two weeks earlier, since it was pretty obvious that he'd had a heart attack that day. And if he'd told me how he was feeling on the way home, I would have stopped in Austin or Waco at a hospital there. I can certainly understand that he wouldn't have wanted to be stuck far from home, but a heart attack is serious business. But I felt badly that I hadn't done more for him, even though I hadn't been given the information that would have enabled me to put two and two together. But now we just had to go forward.

From that point, things happened pretty quickly. The Primacare doctor called an ambulance to take Fred to Medical City. I would have driven him myself, but I had no intention of delaying him from getting whatever treatment he needed. I drove to Medical City by myself, and arrived there about the same time the ambulance did. At the hospital, I learned that Fred had been taken into the cath lab where they would be determining what needed to be done. All I could do was sit down and start to make some phone calls. Of course I called Fred's step-mom and brother (getting their numbers was not easy), and I called all our friends to let them know. Mario and Steve came by for a while, which was very nice of them. Eventually, someone took me back to the cath lab waiting area. Eventually, I was told that Fred was doing fine and that he had had a stent put in one of his arteries. He wasn't in any danger, and they would be moving him to the ICU shortly.

I was able to visit and talk with him there and bring him up-to-date on who I'd called and talked to. There wasn't anything I could do that evening, so I planned on coming back the next morning with some reading material and stuff like that. After I left, I found out later that Troy and Nina, Fred's brother and step-mother, came to the hospital to see him. For the rest of the weekend, I stayed in touch with them.

I came over to see Fred a couple of times on Saturday, and then on Sunday I brought my camera over. Now I understand that none of us like to have our pictures taken when we aren't feeling well or looking put together, but in the interest of being complete and accurate, I want to include here some of the pictures and movies that I took. (Fred's given me his permission, which is extremely sporting of him.) Click on the thumbnail images below to see some shots of Fred in his room at Medical City:

Fred in Medical City This movie shows Fred in his private room at Medical City Dallas.

Fred Talking to His Step-Mother While I was here, Nina called, and I made a movie of Fred talking on the phone to her.

You can return to the page for our trip to San Antonio or use the link below to return to the Index for 2009.

Return to Index for 2009