Update on Mum’s Health – Friday 25.2.2022

For the past 2 days Mum has been cared for at Landour Community Hospital in Mussoorie. We are in a big sunny room (when the sun shines – it thundered and hailed last night) and are blessed by the small army of nurse angels in their green gowns and masks.  The staff are all of them a blessing – and we invite a quick prayer for God to bless this amazing hospital to become known as a healing home for many new families.  We were amazed when Sunita, one of the nurses, asked if we had been at Nav Jivan Hospital in Jharkhand.  It turns out that she was one of our Sunday School students from the first year of our marriage! 

Mum continues to be very sick.  She has impaired consciousness continues to be on oxygen support.  Over the past day we have realized that Mum has probably suffered a stroke in the past 48 hours as she seems unable to move her right leg and arm, and the right side of her face has a slight ‘droop’ to it.  As recently as Wednesday morning she had been able to drink a whole cup of water on her own, so it is not a happy discovery.

But we really want to thank the Lord that Mum’s vital signs are now stable.  Her fever has stopped and her kidney functions have improved.  We were thus able to have a naso-gastric tube inserted which means that her feeding of a liquid diet is do much easier.

Since we are now aware of Mum’s stroke, we were suggested going for another CT scan to see if there is a subdural bleed in the brain since the last CT scan.  Because of Mum’s frail condition, we are hesitant to do so.  Getting a CT scan means a 1.5 hour trip down the mountain to Dehra Dun and harrowing thought of having her disappear into an ICU where she will be tied to her bed as they will not allow us to care for her as we are doing now at Landour Community Hospital.

Thankfully, Mum has not deteriorated even further neurologically.  In fact, we saw a ray of light at the end of the day.  Mum had over the past few days said things that we could not understand because of the slurred speech.  But late afternoon we understood that she was saying “Yeshu Naam ki jai, jai ho” (Jesus’ name in Hindi) and that she was actually singing!  When we sang along with her, she was able to carry on the lyrics of a number of worship songs.  The words are slurred and limited to us, but we can see that her mind is sharp and she can hear and process what we are saying.  The song that we first ‘recognised’ is especially significant as it says that “iske maar khane se mai changai hua” which means that “through Him being beaten I have been healed” (by His stripes we are healed Isa. 53.5). 

In this same time, Mum yawned, and we said that she was yawning like a cat.  And then she said “meow!” and repeated her “meows.”  We talked with her about how she used to look after the many pet cats we had over the years and she was able to give one word answers that showed how much she was understanding our conversation.

We are of course still a long way off from where we would like to be. Mum continues to be very sick and we are glad for the Landour Community Hospital which is hosting us in this crucial time.  We know she has a heart condition that could at any time be the way she is called home for good.  Her stroke means that any recovery is unlikely to be soon.  She drifts in and out.  Her eyes are still not focusing and she does not seem to recognize us yet.   Our gradual new normal is that we move her in her bed every 2 hours so that she does not develop bed sores.

And so a new set of possibilities are opening up.  If Mum survives this bit – we will be looking to a new ways of caring for her.  We are committed to care for Mum in the family and the Lord needs to guide and open doors for us. 

Thank you – every one of you – for standing in prayer for us at this time.  We are blessed to be able to play voice messages from Rudy and Premi to Mum.  And for the fervent prayers and enouragements from so many.  It is a privilege to be here with Mum at this time – along with Stefan and Vikram.  

Even as I write this at 2 AM while keeping the night watch – Mum has been saying with surprising clarity “His grace and His love endures forever.  Thank you Lord.”   This is the most lucid she has been for days.  “His love… forever.  His grace… forever.”  As she drifts in and out.  We thank God for every moment He has given us so far.  And forever.  Blessed be His name.

- Andi and Sheba (on behalf of the extended Eicher family)

Update on Mum's health 24.2.2022

Dear Friends,

Mum had a very restless last night. But what a privilege to be with her for every minute of it, and to massage and comfort her through the hours.

In the morning we were glad when she ate a bowl of suji and drank some water by us asking her to open her mouth and swallow for every spoonful.

As the day went on, it became clear that Mum is unlikely to make a quick recovery. Though the CT scan ruled out internal injury to the brain, a when lot of other post-fall complications are happening to Mum.

Mum is actually very sick. For most of the day she has not opened her eyes. She has also developed a fever and pneumonia and needs oxygen support.  

Mum has been responding to us in a very limited way.  She is unable to answer most questions, other that the occasional monosylable.  

Over the day Mum has sometimes spoken in slurred speech from within her oxygen mask. But though we bend down to listen to Mum, we just couldn't make out the words...

And so we come to the end of the day with Mum in a  challenging state. We firmly believe that the Lord has the power to heal her ... and give her many more days of life.

At the same time, these may be Mum's final days in this life. We.must be ready to accept the answers to the many prayers on behalf of Mum: that God will do the very best form of healing that He chooses at this time. This may be taking Mum to be with Him in paradise now rather than later.

We were glad that Premi was able to talk to Mum over the phone this evening from Alaska.  Mum didn't respond externally,  but we believe that her inner person heard all that has been spoken to her. 

We are deeply grateful for all the prayers and blessings from near and far. Thank you so much.  It is so touching to hear! Your prayers for Mum's complete healing and for wisdom and discernment for us are so appreciated!

- Andi and Sheba Eicher (on behalf of the widely spread-out Eicher clan)

Announcing the Broadcast Group

Dear Friends, 

Some of you will have heard that our mother Christa Eicher had a fall in her home in Mussoorie on Monday 21st morning.

Since then many things have happened, with Mum being admitted at Landour Community hospital (LCH) and being referred to Dehra Dun for a CT scan, and us being able to shift her back to LCH yesterday afternoon.

We have started this broadcast group to channel prayer for Mum / Oma / Aunty Christa. 

We hope to put up daily updates on her condition so that we can pray in a focussed way. 

- Andi and Sheba Eicher (for the extended Eicher clan)

Mum's Fall - Initial Prayer request

Dear Friends

This is the whatsapp note we sent out as we were booking tickets and rushing to Mussoorie from our distant part of Odisha

21.2.2022

Requesting prayers. 

Mum had a bad fall today and has had a head wound and lost blood. She was alone at the time.  She was taken to Landour Community hospital for first aid and observation in their ICU.

In the afternoon she became disoriented and is now being shifted to Dehra Dun for a CT scan.  Stefan should be arriving in Dhera Dun this evening, and Sheba and myself are booked to fly tomorrow (22.2) to Dehra Dun via Delhi, God-willing arriving at 3 pm.  

Your on-going prayers are cherished for Mum and all of us at this time.  

- Andi and Sheba

Radio Contact

Hello Gentle Reader!

It has been a looooong time since this blog was updated.  

If you have come here in the last 1.5 years, and seen only the last post... my apologies.

A month ago today (21st March 2022) we plunged into the latest set of challenges - a health emergency for my mother in Mussoorie.   I started a daily update which was sent out on FB and Whatsapp.  To take us through the story, I am including them in chronological order - with the odd photo illustration to boot.

Blessings from all of us!

The Eichers (of Lamtaput at this point in our pilgrimage) 

501.1

This morning at 5.42 AM I crossed a barrier.

There was no fanfare, just a small set of numbers slipping into new territory: 501.1

500 kms done.

I started jogging regularly 7 months ago in preparation for the Asha Kiran 10 K Run which we were organising then.  And started keeping track on my mobile.

It's now become a part of me.  This strange tug to get downstairs and start stretching my calves as the sky starts to fade into colour.  The almost animal tug to get going, with my mind and part of my body asking 'why?' as the first set of paces begin.

Push forward.  Praise music on.  Out the back gate of the hospital campus.  Onto the blessed stretch of lonely road.  Early morning coolness welcomes the trod, trod, trod.  Today a blessed mist.  Yesterday patches of light rain splattered me.  

Up the early incline.  Get to the top.  Loosen the pace.  Thoughts go towards Asha who jogged with me almost every morning for the 4 months she was with us.  Usually on this bit.  A prayer or two on her behalf.  The thoughts of the days work start showing up.  Deep breaths.  Look at my pace.  Just over 6 mins per km.   Can I get that down?  Open stride as I come to the top of the gentle hill.

The vista opens up.  Rolling hills.  Patch-work forests.  Some bedraggled cashew-plantations.  Rows of eucalyptus rifle by as I push down the hill.  And now the short-cut.  Quick-right onto mud-path.  Head down.  Look down for loose-stones.  Careful, don't want to slip.  Brush-through occasional wet-web.  And then the slight climb.  Hill No. 2.  Got to get through without a fall.  Can I keep the pace under 6 mins?   Scramble up last 10 meters and back onto black-top.

5.47 per km.  Time to kick forward.  Bit of huffing-puffing, deep breaths.  The sun has started to make the rain-cloud-skies shimmer with silver.  I love this place.  A lone motor-cycle passes me.  Driver wearing a cloth face-mask, but no helmet.

Almost at the bottom of the hill.  2 kms gone.  Start up the final gentle climb.  Push, push.  Praise music on again after silly spotify ad.   How great is our God.  Push, push.  Deep breaths.  Final hill.  After the gentle top is gently down.  Can I move the pace down to 5.30?   Come to the mini crest at 5.38.  

500 m left.  Shirt sweat-stained, ye olde legs a-pumpin.  Just a bit more.  Don't run fast, keep jogging at pace.  Glance at mobile, its down to 5.32.  We are coming in fine.  200 meters more.  The sun is glinting off the ginger plants to my right.  The little smudge of a rock-pile near the back gate is looming closer.

Keep going.  Almost there.  Last metres to go.  I'm here.  Legs slow down to walk and blessed sweat-stained relief.  Touch the screen.  The run is over. 3.18 kms in 17.21 mins.  I have reached my goal of doing it in under 5.30 mins per km.

Oh the joy of stopping.  Stretch.  Loosen.  Music still soaring.  What a relief to walk down the bamboo-framed path.  The lark is on the limb.  All is well.  

Quick look into the dew-spangled plot of a kitchen garden we have.  And then up the stairs to the bath and the new day.  Its 6 AM and a beautiful day has begun.

-------------------------------

So here is the strange thing.

I have never jogged like this in my life.  At 51 sun-spins, something new has woken up.  And today I crossed the 500 km barrier.  Am really, really surprised.   I remember Dad reading us "A Father, A Son and a Three-mile Run" where the boy gets up every morning to run cross country and charts out his miles on a map across the US.  He crosses it and comes half-way back.  Just did not seem possible.  Well, today I have managed to accumulate a Delhi to Dehra Dun and almost all the way back set of kms jogged.

A few learnings along the way.

First.  

Habits take time to form.  And start from diverse roots.  This one started last year while we were on our mini-sabbatical.  The long rambling visit in the US gave lots of time for early morning wanderings.  And the first little stretches of jogging were experimented there.  Mostly about 500 meters or so.   From the tiny acorn grows...

Second.  

Goals help.  Big time.  Knowing that we were organising a 10 K run made me want to run it.  To see if I could.  It seemed impossible in Feb.  But by adding another 500 metres every 3-4 days, I slowly worked up to doing 7-8 kms every morning.  Totally at my pace.  Shuffling along.  Walk up briskly up hills.  Jog down.  Keep the old ankles from twisting.

Third.

Small targets are exciting.  For me knowing how much I have jogged really, really helps.  Why should it?  Shouldn't just the beauty of everything out there be enough?  Yeah.  I am sure there are others for whom that is enough.  But I like to keep track.  I do.  I like to finish off a round figure.  Can I complete 5 kms?  Can I nudge my time to a new level?  Hearing that Asha's school minimum mark for girls' inter-house cross country was 6 mins per km was a good spur for me.  Surely I can do that!  And yes, with huffing and puffing it was achieved.  But for me I am doing 3 kms at present, not under 6 min pace for the 5 kms that Wynberg Allen girl students run for.  Humbling.

Fourth.

Applause lifts you up.  OK, I don't get applause at this point.  But when we did a trial run of the Asha Kiran 10 K run in early March, I found the clapping and encouragement of our friends who were manning different parts of the trail to be a huge tonic.   Sadly the COVID-19 craziness has put our beloved Asha Kiran 10 K Run into cold storage...  But by-standers clearly help.  The world's greatest long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge insisted on running before spectators when he ran his amazing feat of completing a marathon - all 42 kms of it - in under 2 hours (2.85 blistering minutes per km!). 

Fifth.

Jogging changes you.  I am 10% less than I used to be.  A year ago I weighed in at 92-93 kgs.  Today I have dipped to around 80 or so.  Someone I met last month asked whether I was ill.   Could jogging be pathological?

Sixth.

The subtle bit.  What is the right balance?  Am I addicted to this early-morning silliness?  How much of the sly slippery pride has entered?  Do I see the same drive, the same hunger in other parts of my life?  Much to ponder on of course.  Will have to mull over that a bit on tomorrow's jog...  I hope it doesn't rain when the clock slips past 5 AM...

----------------------------------------------------------

The Good Book says: For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4.8

So much yet to learn.   Much to push forward for.   501.1 kms are over.   On, on!

On Baking Chocolate Cake from the Landour Cook Book

Many moons ago, a century shall we say, Mussoorie saw an influx of missionary families every 'hot season.'  Mothers would arrive first, trundling up the ghat to Kincraig in Mussoorie and on up to Landour.   The ladies would take their children out of boarding from Woodstock School and then a month or two later the fathers would join them for a few weeks of R&R.

In the late 1920's the "Reading Club" requested Rev. Parker, the then principal of Woodstock School to build a Community Centre, The building was erected in 1928 catered to the lively summer community, complete with a library and meeting rooms.

The Reading Club of Landour Community Center held weekly meetings there and created a Cook Book, sharing favorite recipes and also giving guidance on substitutions for foods and flavorings not available in Landour, and for cooking at high altitudes.  (From: The Landour Community Centre Cookbooks: From the 1920s to the 1960s and the present)

That Landour Cookbook lives on.  The Eichers in Lamtaput have a well-worn copy which has travelled with us over the past 2 decades from Jharkhand to Thane to Lalitpur and is now being used in S. Odisha.   We used our copy this evening to bake a chocolate cake.  Two actually!

Needless to say, our copy has seen better days.  The cake section (used the most) is rather rich with stuff having spilled on it from eons of open book, measure stuff, whisk it around, splatter...

I am rather fond of the Chocolate Cake recipe by Alfie Campbell.  1 1/2 cups of cold water!  I always wanted to know why we are asked to mix in cold water... and why not milk for this recipe? Anyway, I follow the instructions, and have to say that this recipe has done us well over the years.  This evening a doubling of the ingredients by yours truly resulted in two lovely cakes which are cooling now.

The cover of our Landour Cookbook is special to me, because on one of my parents visits to us (probably when we lived in Thane) my Dad noticed that it was in a poor condition, and he took it on himself to repair it.   And so using some cardboard that he recycled from a file, Dad patched it the veteran copy we have, and wrote "Landour Cookbook" on it with permanent marker.  Almost everytime I see his handwriting I remember him.

Everything fades.  Time slips away.  But we are blessed to live in the now / eternity.

As the needle has now ticked past 12 am, another round of late night baking is over.  A week from tonight we will be preparing for our Asha leaving in the morn for her flight to Mumbai and then Chicago ("so Gott will und wir leben").  This cake one of the many small things we do to prepare for another shift in life.

Strength for today, and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside

Great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see

All I have needed, thy hand has provided,

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me

Our humble cookbook has helped stitch another thread in the vast tapestry of meaning.  S.D.g.