Ganeshe’s birthday is a big deal in India. Although Goa has a predominantly Catholic population there are enough Hindus here to make the Ganeshe Chathurthi a hugely important holiday. Panjim is a ghost town today with all of the shops closed. When I went to grab my coffee this morning I was greeted warmly by the first staffmember I saw at the hotel, happy Ganeshe!, he said to me as he shook my hand. The Marriott lobby is adorned with three giant brass urns that are always filled with flowers. Today the floral artist did an elephant ( shown here) to honor Ganeshe.

Last night our Gang needed to take the night off from her nursing duties with us in order to celebrate with her family. Our backup plan when one of our two nurses calls in sick is literally Plan B: ‘Mister B’.
Mr. B is the nickname I have for the gentleman known as Bhagwan. He is a very quiet and dignified person. He is my muscle and does the heavy lifting when I’m the only caregiver around and we need to reposition Scott every couple of hours.

Last night after Sanjiv left us Mr. B relieved our day nurse, Afsal, and sat keeping Scott company throughout the night. Because Mr. B has worked on an ambulance crew at one time, he is extremely gentle with Scott and that is very much appreciated. I set my cell phone alarm to wake myself every 2 hours so I could prepare and administer pain meds and check in with Scott and Mr. B at midnight, 2, 4, and 6AM. All was fine and Scott was sleeping peacefully without the need of extra pain relief until 8AM. Mr. B had Scott watching the ocean view garden with curtains and door open for awhile before I arrived.

Scott smiled when I walked in and gave me a thumbs up and blew me a kiss. As long as we have this day –and those kisses and hand squeezes– Scott told me he is okay. He is increasingly inclined towards sleep but takes much pleasure in having email messages read to him. Thank you to everyone for your continuing support and messages of love.
Click here to go back to a previous post to hear Scott’s Namaste Song…

namaste
katy & scott