Ciao Familia Procopio...

I am not sure if Saturday night never ended or if Sunday morning never began. The majority of the following events seemed like an eternal blur to me. They felt never ending, but I am still unable to recall them. The night had dragged on, with me feeling immense pains in my head that I had never felt before. I didn’t think such feelings were possible without ending in death, and with each twinge of pain that shot through my central nervous system I would utter a moan.

These grumblings had awoken Aunt Lori several times throughout the night. She had come down to check on me and was trying to talk me into a visit to the emergency room. I didn’t really want to go to the hospital for a measly headache, but by the time the sun began to rise I had a slight feeling of nausea in my stomach. Rather than suffer the never-ending bout of vomiting that Caroline had experienced, I decided a trip to the Emergency Room was necessary. By 7:00 Aunt Lori had pulled in front of the hospital where Hernique, one of the elders in the assembly, works. He was on duty and immediately escorted us to an empty exam room. I was immediately hooked up to an IV and given liquid to combat dehydration and medicine for the pain.

The medicine made me slightly drowsy, and allowed the pain to subside enough to let me leave my head in one place for an extended period of time. I took 20 minute naps for the remainder of the morning. The diagnoses was that I likely had Dengue Fever, the same illness Caroline had earlier that week. They gave me more of the appropriate medications to combat the pain. I really wanted to feel better so I could go to the hall that night to say goodbye to everyone. I was given several more narcotics, and then sent me home around 2:00 with prescriptions to fill at the nearby pharmacy. We got the drugs and made it home before 3:00. I tried to take a nap, and managed to doze off now and then, but I was still experiencing a great deal of pain. I had my share of headaches in the past, but they have always been at least alleviated by some sort of medication.

By the time 6:00 rolled around, it was clear I was not going to make it to meeting, at least not with Mark and the kids who were leaving right then. Aunt Lori was still exhausted from the night before, so she was going to rest and then make it to the hall by 8:00. Even though I knew the chances were slight, I hoped I would feel a little better by then. Neto had come over to stay with me and help me out while they were all gone to meeting, and it was now official that I would be staying home. He was a good nurse, getting me water or ice or whatever else I needed at any particular time. I would keep putting my head under the shower to take some of the pressure off, and I could seem to get another 20 minute nap after each soak.

This continued throughout the evening while the others were at meeting. Meeting had gotten started late that night. Everyone was given the opportunity to get up and say goodbye to Mark, Lori, Caroline and William. One by one they started getting up and even Caroline got up to say “thank you” for making them really feel like they were part of their family. I was really upset that I missed it. After Luis spoke that night, they had a goodbye party for everyone in the back of the hall. All the women had cooked up their best dishes, and everyone stayed and visited until nearly 11:00. They were going to miss us all and it is quite clear that we are going to miss them just as much.

By the time they returned at 11:15, Luis was with them. He was going to give me some sort of sedative to get to sleep seeing that I was so exhausted. I waited around for a little while, while he reviewed the boxes of medicine I had already taken. I decided that it was more comfortable to just wait in my room for him. I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes. Apparently the only sedative I needed was the sound of Luis and Neto talking in Portuguese because I fell asleep almost immediately…