I giggled all the way up to lunch. I was the first to arrive for lunch and I tossed my back pack under my chair at the directors’ table.

It wasn’t 30 seconds later that my three came bounding in and threw themselves into their seats at the table. They then captivated me with their accounts of their morning activities. It even included a quick demonstration of CPR and rescue breathing on Patrick on the floor in the dining hall. It appeared that they were going to be successful in getting their Red Cross swimming badges by the end of the week and I had fair confidence that, should I go into cardiac arrest, I was in good hands!

My three were still in the midst of performing rescue breathing, with Patrick giggling hysterically as he was so ticklish, when Yvonne and Shelby came tearing in. I looked over my shoulder to see a beaming Barb coming towards me with Bill following behind. A huge grin spread across my face.

“Bill!” I gasped and stood up. He smiled shyly. “Goodness! You are a sight for sore eyes!” I said and, to my surprise, I teared up as I walked towards him and gave him a hug. He patted me on the back. “It’s so good to see you.” I barely could choke out in a whisper as I was so emotional.

“Thank you, Anne. It’s good to be seen.” He laughed as I let him out of the hug and then wiped at my eyes, embarrassed that my emotions caught me so off guard. “I’m glad you didn’t let me blow off my symptoms,” he said.

“Me too. Me too.” I nodded, although, I thought to myself, ‘How can you blow off a young guy with shortness of breath?’ That’s definitely NOT normal. Anyone would have done the same. “Are you on some sort of anticoagulation?”

“Oh ya. Indefinitely, they say. Will have labs in a few days and another appointment in a couple of weeks. Not super happy about that but…things could have been worse. Waaaaaay worse. I’m glad we caught it early, I guess…” Bill trailed off and then we were interrupted by Shelby who bounced up and down in front of her Dad with her arms raised. Bill picked her up and tossed her onto his hip. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest.

“I’m just so happy you are back. I’m hoping Lydia left you some work to do! That young lady was very busy while you were gone.”

“I bet she was! I owe a lot of people my gratitude!” Bill said as he looked around. The dining hall was now filled with campers (except, of course, the Deer Hut) and they quickly settled down as we began to sing grace before lunch.

“…Bless each of us our families too…

Be at our side in all we do…”

We sat down to eat. The joy at our table was palpable.