There was news both good and bad over the weekend, the bad news was initially VERY bad. At 5:00 Saturday morning Jenny found her mother unresponsive on the floor in the bedroom, she immediately called 911 and the paramedics said that Helen had suffered a stroke. Jenny called me and left a message that I slept through, I heard it when I awoke about 6:30 for a nature call. Jenny's brother Gary lives in New Jersey, he was planning to visit on Saturday because of Helen's episode earlier in the week. Jenny got the word out to all concerned, when Gary arrived from Jersey he went straight to the hospital. I was with Jenny later in the day, she was completely shaken and didn't want to stay home by herself. I asked her if she wanted to come to the city and spend the weekend at my place, we got back to town about 7:00 or so. She had heard very little firsthand about Helen's condition, we called the hospital and were updated. When Helen got to the ER her speech was slurred and she was having trouble controlling hand movement, they ran tests and found a blood clot on her brain. The removal procedure was successful and they said she was doing much better, she was completely aware of where she was and what had happened. On Sunday we were there personally, when we walked in both Helen and Jenny became very emotional. Outside of simply being tired Helen was alert, talking with good diction and in full control of body movement, the nurse said she had improved markedly from Saturday. I took Jenny home on Monday, in the afternoon the latest update was Helen having an MRI and a breathing test. No idea when she'll be able to go home but by Monday it sure as hell looked a lot better than it did on Saturday. The good news came on Friday night, on Homecoming at McCaskey the Red Tornado won at home for the first time since week #3 of the 2021 season. It required overtime but a win is a win, the final over Reading High was 34-28. JPM led 14-7 at the quarter and 20-14 at the half, after a scoreless third quarter RHS outscored JPM 14-8 in the final period to force OT. In regulation play Jalen Cintron threw four TD passes (two to DeAndre Jones and one each to Quimeak Talton and Josh Morales-Monzon) but the club was just 2-4 on two-point conversions. In the OT JPM had first possession, Cintron found Morales-Monzon for the lead but the two-pointer failed leaving the door wide open for RHS. On fourth-and-goal from the one the Tornado defense threw up The Brick Wall and nailed down Sweet Victory. The club improves to 2-5 overall with Senior Night upcoming on the 20th. On Sunday Jenny slept in at my place while I was in Rothsville for week #3 at Lions Park. Three new players brought the enrollment to forty-nine, Hillside won over Warwick and Ephrata beat Township. Take care, thanks for reading.
