I am sad to report that J0n's dad, Larry Grossman, passed away Friday, January 13, just 10 days short of his 82nd birthday. Jon, his mom, Bobbie, sister Ilene and brother Carl are all doing ok. The family held an informal memorial service in the home on Saturday night. There will be two shiva minyans in Bethesda. In addition, there will be a formal memorial service at Johns Hopkins University (where Larry was a biochemistry department faculty member and department chair for many years) in about a month's time. Please contact Loren Amdursky (nelseh@aol.com) for details. To read about Larry's amazing life and impressive contributions to the field of DNA repair, see the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health website.

As you can imagine, we are all going through a great deal of stress, both from the week that passed and in anticipation of the week ahead. The weekend brought family members together from many parts of the country, so at least we all had an opportunity to be together. It was a challenge to allow Matthew to socialize and participate, while at the same time trying to keep his fragile immune system safe from germs. On Saturday, he sat in an upstairs bedroom of Jon's mother's house with a mask on his face. Family members were allowed to visit him a few at a time - but only after they, too, donned a mask and lathered themselves in Purell. For the service, he came downstairs, sat apart from the crowd, and performed the Beatles tune, "Blackbird" on the guitar along with his Uncle Carl.

This is the week that Matthew goes back into the hospital for the second round of chemo and transplant. We are heartened by results of the latest tests and by Matthew's strong recovery from round one. At the same time, we are of course apprehensive about what lies ahead. If we've learned anything, it is to expect surprises.