Back to Dover

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Yesterday my sister had excruciating pain in the area of her appendix. She visited her doctor who arranged an appointment for Wednesday with a surgeon. The pain failed to subside and she was taken to the emergency room. By 4 in the morning they had operated on her for acute appendicitis.

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Several years back, while building my first house, I noticed that almost every morning in the beach resort town of Ocean View, Delaware there was some form of emergency that sent sirens wailing off into the bright morning sun. I imagined a myriad of possible emergencies playing out under a deep blue summer sky. I imagined the Jaws of Life peeling open a car and letting in the smell of tanning lotion.

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I remember the first time I realized just how fast an accident happened. It was like an amazing glimpse into the nature of time. Suddenly, I understood something about being alive that I had never known before; Time is different for each of us.

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While in Lithuania I went to our guest room in my in laws apartment and lay down. The trip had been exhausting and my body had yet to catch up with me. As the fog of sleep fell, I heard in the distance my wife choking uncontrollably. I raced to the kitchen to find her mother striking her back and P. buckled over convulsing. I wrapped my arms around her waist and lifted her. The crepe that had caused the irritation dislodged itself. Last night she told me that during the episode everything had begun to go black. In her solitary time of emergency she had mused that it was somehow fitting that she had traveled all the way across the ocean, back to her hometown, to die in her childhood kitchen.  

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