Trip to Charlotte

Hello Everyone! To explain my long absence from updating this blog, I have to say that we took an emergency trip back to North Carolina. My grandfather (dad's dad) had two strokes back to back that left him semi-lucid, with the thought of surgery looming, and in grave condition. We decided to hop a plane back to see him at least while he was conscious, so two Thursdays ago we left Rome.

The flight back was very long (12 hours)...due in part to the fact that we were delayed two hours on the ground here in Rome with a missing seal on the aircraft. Here's Philomena peeking out midflight....


When we got to our hotel, even though it was midnight, Theodore came over to say hello and goodbye before he headed up to Indiana the next day to visit his family.


At the hospital, this older man named Neal Zarrelli came to pay Pappap a visit. Neal is quite a character and has known Pappap for some time.


In any case, he brought two gifts, a quart of ice cream and a bottle of wine. What do you want, he's from Naples? In any case, the bottle of wine broke in the hospital room, and gave a nice wine smell to the hospital.


My dad's brother Vince came down with his son Steven. Here is a shot of those three.


Luckily, my grandfather regained lucidity quite rapidly and only has minor paralysis in his right arm which physical therapy is projected to fix. However he still has quite a bit of cholesterol placque in his aorta which could cause another stroke at any time, so your continued thoughts and prayers are appreciated.