Donna & Bob Arrive

Tuesday December 29, 1992

I decide to spend the day in bed and maybe I'll feel better tomorrow. I feel much better laying down in bed, but no better when I get up.

Donna & Bob arrive about 7 p.m. I struggle to get up and be sociable. It's not easy. We open Christmas gifts. About 10:30 I must go to bed. Everyone is tired so no problem.

This photo of Mom's best friend Donna and Donna's husband Bob was taken at Christmas 2012, 20 years after Mom's post. Donna was diagnosed with breast cancer several years before Mom had cancer, and Bob had a bout with prostate cancer a few years ago, but they are both doing well as they approach their 80th birthday. Bob loves to restore old cars and they live in a charming Victorian house with wraparound porch in Pollock Pines, California, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Mom loved Donna so much but I don't think she shared her fear and anxiety with her either, preferring to put on a brave face. I'll bet she concealed her pain very well for the 3 hours she had to force herself out of bed to be sociable.