Earthquakes & surgery for Eliz.

Thurs 6-14-07
Yesterday during lunch we had a pretty serious earthquake tremor...the largest I've ever felt at least. It was a 6.8! When I looked at that national website re: earthquakes, this one was in a bold red font. Only those above 6.0 get a bold red font...not many of those seen very often. Elizabeth (my "house mother") and her helper got this look of urgency on their face and popped out of their chairs, and pulled away from the lunch table quickly. Usually they don't even feel the tremors and/or they ignore them because they're accustomed to them (and our house shakes frequently because of the big trucks going by). So I figured if they were concerned, then so was I! I was the first one to hit the closest door...but Eliz yelled "Don't go out there!" She later explained that the streets are very dangerous during tremors/earthquakes because the electric lines are not sturdy and they often snap free and wildly fling about...killing many. She said the best place to be (in this area) was under a door frame. Good info to know! Some of the ruins had some damage and some homes near the epicenter didn't fare well...but essentially all was fine. I'm hearing that this was covered by CNN and all the major networks in the USA. It's been the talk around town today.

Elizabeth announced yesterday that she had scheduled surgery today for her ovarian tumor (mentioned in a previous email). Apparently the MD happened to have an opening. As far as I know she had surgery at 8am today, but at lunch time her daughter hadn't yet heard anything. She said the doctor warned her that he would not be able to do the surgery with small incisions and a scope...but would have a large incision on her lower abdomen at the bikini line. So, her recovery will be slow and quite painful. Poor thing! If there are no complications, I think she'll come home on Sat. It's gonna get quite interesting in our house without her being there to run things! Please keep her in your prayers.

Any fyi...my email problems still continue.