6 A.M., April 1, 2011, Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia…The nurse who came in to greet us said, "I'm sorry, all the machines are down.  Your surgeries will need to be rescheduled."

[WHAT!]

"Ha!  April Fool!"

(True story.)

—

After that bracing, heart-attack-inducing prelude, my wife Sarah Deming gave her left kidney to her mother, Ruth Deming.  For more backstory see The Spiral Staircase and The Belle of Cowbell.  (I particularly enjoyed the Rodeo post of S's, and I see R says, "I could never reconcile the way the composer Igor Stravinsky looked w/ the raw sexual power of the music. Esp. the accompanying dancing. Remind me to ask Ethan when I wake up from the Long Sleep to tell me about music and sexuality."  Yep, that's my mother-in-law.)

Sarah is fine and Ruth is already putting that new kidney to use.  Bravo. 

A few early-morn candids including brother Dan: