First of all I would like to thank all of you who have been such a help to Robin and I. Thank you. Thank you.
This has been a terrible time for me.For several days I was able to tell myself that she was only out of touch. But as the days became a week, I began to lose hope. I went downstairs yesterday morning to get something from the basement and found myself among all her clothes that she had stored with us. At that moment, I felt real dread - would I ever see her again? Were her clothes the only part of her that I would ever find? Maybe she had stayed on the beach and not gone to Laos. Maybe she had gone to Loas and got into trouble and with all the noise of the greater crsis, was now lost? By dinner, I was barely holding onto to my own hopes and my fears were getting the better of me.
It was simply breath-taking to hear her voice last night. Cynthia and the Dunsford clan were over at our hosue and we were watching Return of the King . The film is full of references to "Hope" - "Hope is not lost", "Hope is all there is". One aspect of the film is about finding your true self through the fire of suffering. It seemed very relevant to me. Then the phone rang, James answered it and called out -"It's Hope" She had no time to tell us anything except that she was OK - in fact she said that she was "More than OK"
Our movie watching ended and the Dunsfords, being the sweet and aware people that they are, left us to celebrate our good fortune alone.
I can hardly recall sleeping better than I did last night.
One of the insights that I have had during the last week is the power of the web to suport a person emotionally in crisis. Your support on the web has kept me going a lot better than if I was merely on my own.
