It can be a devastating word- "inoperable"; one which, when it is pronounced, can take the breath out of you as swiftly as a blow to the solar plexus. It is a word you would dread to hear, with all of its appalling implications, spoken in relation to yourself or your loved ones.

Tragically, it was a word used to describe the condition of Lisa Crenshaw Lore , 41, last fall after she had suddenly suffered a seizure and stroke at her home in the Pitcairn Road section of Shokan. A Catscan revealed eleven tumors at the base of Lisa's brain and a large one in front.

"It's like a nightmare you don't really wake up from," said Lisa's husband, Richard, who was laid off from his job in construction in December.

"I'm taking it one day at a time, basically," Richard said. "I have three kids and no job. I wanted to spend as much time with her as I could. She wants me around as much as possible and I've got to do that. I'm just trying to make her as comfortable as I can."

Adding that "the doctor originally said (in October) that she has between two and six months," Richard said he had never been through anything like before and didn't know of any "timetable of what to look for or what's going to happen" in regard to Lisa's condition. Ever since he returned home from work that October day to find his wife lying on the floor, the world has tilted into a slope of emotional turmoil, stress and apprehension.

Lore, who ran his family's hair dressing salon in Woodstock for 25 years, filling in with carpentry and construction where he could, turned to the latter occupation full time only in recent years. He is considering a return to hairstyling in the future but, for now, his chief concerns are obvious. The couple have a three-year-old daughter, a ten-year-old daughter and a son about to turn thirteen. Reflecting upon the delayed impact of his own father's death when Richard was seventeen, he is simultaneously trying to cope with the present and prepare for the children's future.

"I'm trying to take as many pictures as I can and gather writings and things," Lore said. "At some point the kids are really going to want and need that. We're all praying for a miracle but basically, they know that their mom's not going to get any better and there's not much time left."

A fund has been just established to enable community members to help the family through the trials ahead. Donations made out to:

     Friends and Neighbors of Lisa Crenshaw Lore

can be sent to:

     D. Bryan
     142 High Pt. Mt. Rd.
     West Shokan, N.Y. 12494.