This will not be a long entry, but I did want to take time to thank everyone who has written encouraging words to Mary and myself.

Mary, my wife, suffered a major stroke April 17, a Wednesday, while at work. Fortunately, she was discovered within minutes of her stroke (she was about to leave with some girlfriends for lunch), so that she arrived at the emergency room of a nearby hospital, and was given an injection of TPA, within the first critical half hour of her attack. (TPA is a drug which can greatly reverse, over time, the effects of a stroke if it's administered quickly).

To give some indication of the seriousness of Mary's stroke, the clot which entered her brain was the size of an egg. She was at first unable to communicate at all, and was completely paralyzed on her right side. Doctors predicted it would be six to eight weeks before she could walk again, but in fact she was out in the halls, walking unassisted, after only one week. Within two weeks, she had completely recovered, physically.

Right now Mary is receiving outpatient speech therapy at a local facility that specializes in stroke recoveries. She'll probably continue at the institute, Monday through Friday, for the next several months. She can speak half-sentences at this point, which is a miracle after so short a time.

Once things have settled down more, I want to write here about that Wednesday, and all the long, long days and nights that followed, but this isn't the time.

Thanks so much to everyone who wrote me. Your good thoughts, prayers and encouragement meant more, and helped more, than I can ever convey.

If you've been to SENTENCE before, you'll probably notice the Index page has a new format. This is a change I was planning to introduce the Saturday of the week Mary had her stroke. This new format will eventually be used throughout SENTENCE. I think it looks less cluttered, and makes it easier to read the text. You may also notice some new navigational links in the left hand column, such as to Antarctica and Our World Is A Word, but these new features have not been added yet.

Please continue to keep Mary in your thoughts. To see some pictures of her, go here. To visit her website, please go here.