We got home a day late because of an unexpected detour from Seattle to Philadelphia. My 96-year-old mother had had a stroke in Nazareth and been taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem (a Biblical journey in reverse). This was her second stroke; the first she had had while visiting us here in 2005; though this new one was followed by a heart attack. Yesterday, after eight days in the hospital, she was discharged. She was coherent (her speech had returned, with occasional lapses) and perhaps not all that happy about her recovery – she gave the impression of being woefully weary of everything – but this did nothing to detract from her strength and her remarkable ability to overcome setbacks.
