August 5, 2015 - Change of Venue

Last month's testing and examinations went well. My blood counts remained very good and my bone marrow aspiration continued to show excellent results with a "blast" count at 2%, well within the normal range of 0% to 4%. MD Anderson Cancer Center and it's exceptional team of Leukemia personnel continue to be my HEROES in health care. Thank you, thank you, thank you one and all.

We also rejoice with bitter sweet happiness and sadness because we have a signed contract for the sale of our house in Jackson, MS. We plan to close the sale by August 31 while continuing to pack and move out the week-end of August 28-30. Thirty years ago we purchased and moved into our property on Kings Place, a wonderful street and neighborhood. We have lived in Jackson a total of 40 consecutive years and now we will be leaving not only a house and city but our "home".

Our plan is to finalize our relocation to the Houston, TX area soon after the closing. Since we will be homeless for awhile until we find a house there, our move will be uncertain. We will continue moving our personal belongings into our Jackson rented storage facility near our house. From now until the 31st we will move it out with the help of family, friends and possibly a few hired hands. Several months ago we began serious purging, downsizing and give away efforts so the task at hand should go more smoothly. Our emotions will likely be the most difficult part for us to control realizing we will miss our good life here with long time friends and colleagues.

This move is all part of my health and healing process, however. As well as I have been doing these past few months we are not able to feel comfortable away from our medical team in Houston. The constant travel back and forth for testing and treatment has been increasingly hard. This MD Anderson experience will be a long term process and likely will continue indefinitely. We know it best to move and  we look forward to this new chapter and challenge in our lives. Like so many of us we have family scattered all over this great country. Our move to Houston will put us closer to Sarah, Ryan, Cason and Claire. For this we are very happy and excited. Sadly however, this moves us away from our beloved Mississippi and from James, Taylor and Modi in Hattiesburg. We will be even farther away from our granddaughter Helmi who lives in the Richmond VA area. Bitter Sweet, indeed.