HUNTING FOR A MISSING FRIENDI have recently written about my

HUNTING FOR A MISSING FRIEND

I have recently written about my Australian friend, Les, who has Parkinson's. Recently, none of his friends, including me, had heard from him, and I began getting e-mails from the others expressing concern and wondering if anyone had received any word of him or knew where he was. The most recent e-mail, which one of them got last week, was mostly indecipherable.

Yesterday, one of the friends, a lady named Mary, wrote me and said she was going to try to call Australia, particularly his doctor's office, to see if he could be located. As the day progressed, we also heard that another friend, Peter, from the UK, had tried calling Les's house and gotten no answer. Mary and I corresponded over the course of the day and she reported in as she also was unsuccessful in reaching Les's clinic over time.

At last, she reached a person at Les's old doctor's office and was referred to a new doctor, who referred her to a Brisbane hospital. There she learned that Les is in ICU and she wasn't given any more information, which was as she expected. She did ask if she could leave a message and she was told that he probably wasn't conscious. It certainly doesn't sound good, but we are trying to stay positive.

I told Mary, who is unemployed, as is her husband, that I would pay for the calls to Australia. I am still determined to do so, if she will let me. I will see what she does on that. For various reasons, I feel unable to call, myself. I am hoping that other friends will perhaps be able to check in and see how he is doing and let the rest of us know from time to time.

Many prayers are going up for Les. If you are a praying person, I know yours would be welcome, too.

*****

I learned today that my grandsons in Bend, Michael, 9 1/2, and Alex, 7 1/2, are flying with their other grandmother, Merre, to Florida. I am so glad last night's thunderstorms cleared up, although I saw a forecast last evening for rain in Miami today. (I'm not sure where they will be landing, though.) More prayers, this time for traveling mercies, from me.