Christmas Letter 2007

Alan Hodgkinson Reckenbühlstrasse 12 CH-6005 Luzern, Switzerland alan.hodgkinson@alum.mit.edu http://www.softxs.ch/alan

Dear Friends,

Merry Christmas! I hope the holiday season finds you in good health and enjoying life. Here in Switzerland, Sandra and I have had a mixed year, with two major events, one good and one bad.

As explained in our Christmas letter from 2006, we spent a week in December at El Quseir, on the Red Sea coast. What I didn't include in last year's letter is that on one of the first evenings of the trip I asked Sandra, on bended knee no less, to marry me. Much to my delight she said yes. We took a while to decide how and when to marry, and eventually settled on a simple civil ceremony with only immediate family, to be held on 7 April 2007 (which in Europe is expressed as 7-4-7, an auspicious number for those who work in the airline industry).

There followed a great deal of logistical organization, thankfully project-managed by Sandra. 'Immediate family' turned out to be 17 people, and the logistics, though not terribly complex, were non-trivial. Sandra mastered this completely. Much to my relief, the most complex issue I faced was selecting wines for the meal,.

In the midst of all this, one month before our wedding date, Sandra went for her yearly breast scan. The initial results were inconclusive, and after a couple of nervous weeks of additional diagnostic tests, she was diagnosed with breast cancer! Needless to say this was a shock. The doctors recommended we act quickly, in order to have the best possible long-term prognosis, and begin immediately with the surgical and post-operative procedures. So, with less than two weeks before our wedding date, Sandra spent a week in hospital undergoing an operation.

Amazingly, the doctors recommended that we not cancel or delay our wedding, and that all should go ahead as planned. This was good advice, and in the end, our wedding day was a dream come true. My mother and sister, who live in California, attended, as did Sandra's immediate family and a couple of very close friends. We had a magnificent spring day and Sandra, in spite of the recent operation, was truly a princess, showing enormous strength in both mind and body.

Shortly after our wedding Sandra started a series of chemotherapy treatments followed by a course of radiation therapy. This continued through the summer and fall, finally ending in November. Thankfully the treatments, though physically draining, were not the terrible ordeal you sometimes hear about. Much credit goes to the doctors, nurses and hospital staff, who in addition to being top-notch medically were also quite friendly and supportive. Thanks also go to family and friends who all of whom offered much support and comfort throughout the year.

It's now December and the main treatments are compete. We've over the worst, which given the initial diagnosis, could have been much, much worse. Throughout the year, Sandra remained positive and proactively dealt with everything that came her way, managing to work a day a or two per week from home and even occasionally going to the office. I think her positive outlook and the support from everyone around saved the day. We are confident that this will, ultimately, be regarded as merely an irritating year in an otherwise long and happy life together.

We are currently restarting normal life. Sandra is pleased to be visiting the hairdressers again and resuming her normal fitness training, and all the activities we normally take for granted. For us, this will be an especially memorable Christmas.

Unsurprisingly, given the events of the year, we had neither the time nor energy for exotic foreign travel. We still owe ourselves a proper honeymoon, which we expect to take next year. My only fun trips this year were a short visit to Cambridge, Massachusetts for the 25th reunion of my graduation from MIT, and a long weekend to the Isle of Man to attend an uncle's wedding. Otherwise, I made a number of business trips, visiting Iceland for a week and a half, and taking part in three conferences, in Prague, Brussels and Granada (Spain). Currently, I'm starting a major marketing/sales effort to sell our drawing management system.

My most desired Christmas present this year is to have Sandra, healthy and happy again. Luckily, it looks like I'll be getting my Christmas present. May yours be just as sweet.

Sincerely,