…I will share thoughts and ideas about professional issues and concerns…So you won't learn what I have eaten on a given day; our three children almost certainly don't want their lives discussed…my wife is a very private person and likes it that way; and you won't read about what kept me awake during a recent night unless it relates somehow to my professional concerns.

In this post I am making an exception. Twilight Librarian has seen very little activity in the past month. That is because I have been very busy with family responsibilities. On March 7 my wife fell ill. Within two days she was in intensive care and doctors explained that her illness was life threatening. I knew I had to ask one additional question and I was fairly certain I wouldn't receive the answer I hoped for. I asked if I needed to tell our children they should come home to see their mother. The doctors unequivocally told me I should.

In the weeks that followed, my wife was in two hospitals, four ICUs, and eight hospital rooms. She came home April 4, four weeks to the day since she was hospitalized. Most of that time I was away from work; my main responsibility was to be her advocate with the staff of a large teaching hospital. The care she received was excellent. Nevertheless, if you are sick enough to be in a large hospital, you better have someone well enough to be with you to make sure the bureaucracy does no harm (e.g., taking 24 hours to carry out a doctors order for change of diet) and to do simple care tasks (e.g., getting ice water, untangling an IV tube and resetting its relentlessly beeping pump). Nurses and their assistants can do these things, but not with the promptness a patient wants and appreciates. And being there when the doctors do their rounds is the best way to learn about the patient's condition and the medical team's thinking about their care plan. Thus have I spent most of the past month. I am now putting together a schedule of family and friends who can be with her at home during the day. I need to get back to my job. She will recover fully, but it will take time. A four-week hospital stay weakens any patient.

Rumor Control
I have heard that there are rumors that:

• I have withdrawn from the American Library Association presidential race
• If I am elected my wife's illness will prevent me from accepting the office
• If I am elected I will accept the office but that my wife's illness will prevent me from carrying out my duties as vice-president/president-elect and, the following year, as president

All of these rumors are false. Her doctors say she will return to the energy level, good health, and range of activities she enjoyed before this sudden acute illness befell her. It may take two months for her to regain all of that, but regain it she will. Nobody has been more constant than my wife in supporting my ALA candidacy. She would not approve of my sacrificing a long-term opportunity because of her short-term condition.

Were my wife's illness chronic, then I would have had to determine whether or not my responsibilities to her would prevent me from carrying out my ALA responsibilities. Had I determined that meeting her care needs would preclude my meeting my ALA responsibilities, then I would have terminated my candidacy. I care too much about ALA to do otherwise.

I remain a candidate in the ALA presidential election. I am committed to the race. If you have not voted yet, I ask for your vote.

Because of my family responsibilities I have had to cancel planned campaign trips to several state and regional library association meetings. I would have enjoyed meeting in person ALA members and other library workers at those conferences. Because our older daughter and my wife's sister were with my wife, I was able to participate in the ACRL National conference in Baltimore last weekend. The program I planned on the future of reference drew a standing-room-only crowd in a room set up for 570. It was good to interact with colleagues and share ideas, just as it will be good to do while serving ALAs members as their vice president and president.