ONCE A PARENT, ALWAYS A PARENT

It's been a rough few weeks, what with my youngest of three daughters sustaining a bad concussion, multiple stitches, hematomas and bruises from a bike accident while training for a triathalon and my middle daughter about to have a hysterectomy. The eldest daughter is fine, I'm happy to report!

The youngest one is a great athlete in fabulous condition. She entered one of these triathalons (not the Iron man variety but shorter forms) earlier this year after not having done one in a year or so---and she won her age division and finished the second woman in the race by less than thirty seconds. Not bad for a 45 year old, eh?

It is really frustrating watching her try to stay at rest, she is so hyperactive, but she is learning that recovering from a concussion takes a lot of time and patience. It happened three weeks ago, and she still gets headaches, although their frequency and intensity have waned. We visited her on the east coast of Florida for the first time for five days and had a wonderful visit. She had asked us to wait to see her until she felt she could have a good visit. She has two teen-age sons involved in a host of sports and activities, so she is a "soccer mom" plus, which makes it all the harder for her to stay still.

Now my wife and I have a four-day break and then head Saturday for Atlanta where the middle daughter will have surgery on November 3. Today, I understand, they do these operations arthroscopically, or keyhole surgery, through the abdomen, but she still will have to take it easy for a few days. She lives in a town house with three flights, so we want to keep her from using the stairs as much as possible. We'll be with her until Nov. 11. She's also very fit, so I'm sure she'll do fine.

As a friend of mine said, "Parenting never ends!" We should just be grateful they are still here.