Watercolors judemann.com

STAGE IV From Bermuda to New England and the Disastrous Millenium 1999 - 2000 continued In August I joined a relieved spouse in Provincetown, and took up the brush as we traveled through the New England I hadn't seen in years, and had never painted. We made our way up to the boatyard in Portland, Connecticut, hauled, and returned to land life in Holyoke Massachusetts. In the long warm fall afternoons I painted the mills and canals of Holyoke and Peter refitted Flight. Then, life took a sudden, dark turn. In early December Peter awoke in the throes of a seizure. A trip to the nearest emergency room revealed that he had an enormous brain tumor. He underwent surgery 11 days later and was released at his request 30 hours after the incision was closed, on Christmas Eve. There was every hope that he would make a full recovery, but his speech and reading were affected, and took a long time to return. His attention and comprehension were also affected by surgery, but he is the Most Stubborn Person in the Universe, and he knew what he wanted to do. By February he was crawling up the ladder, brushing the snow off the decks, and resuming the refit. In May the MRI film revealed that all of the tiny tumor fragments left behind had survived, against the odds. Now the situation seemed more desparate, in that not even our beloved Blackie (Peter Black, chief of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women's and Harvard Medical School) knew what the cells were going to do. He said, quote: I'm so very sorry. If there's something you want to do, you have a few good months right now. You have my blessing.

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