Just found out that a close friend's close friend in Palo Alto has a child who was just admitted to LPCH today with suspected lymphoma. The kid & his mom are 5 rooms down from Sam & Kathy right now (they're trying to negotiate with the nurses right now for a quick jailbreak from Sam's room just to say hello and offer support for a couple of minutes). 

It feels so bad to hear about it -- and triggers memories of that first day/week/month last year. So many hard days ahead. But also it feels so nice to be able to at least go say hello, and lend a shoulder, and to bear witness. I'm at home tonight, but Kathy said Sam's immediate response was to hop out of bed to go be with them for at least a minute.

No two ways about it: their family is in for a difficult journey, but I hope & trust that it's one with as much positivity and learning and connection as we've been able to find in our still ongoing one. I'm grateful from a personal perspective to be able to see more clearly these moments that happen to families every single day -- it's hard and uncertain, but seeing that it is happening is at least a start.

Anyhow. Hoping to meet them when I'm on the ward tomorrow afternoon, unless we get Sam home sooner. Hoping to just be there to hear how they are feeling, and to see them as they start the trek back to health.