In memory of my Mom, who is now healthy and happy

Working on this tonight, to be shared at my Mom’s funeral this weekend
Some of my earliest memories of Mom are her washing dishes at the sink at our house in Delaware. She would wash dishes and sing. I heard my mother sing songs that I didn’t hear anywhere else. If a [...]

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Addictions

I’ve been asked to think about my mother’s eulogy. It occurs to me that she might be a “forgivaholic.” Which, if you’re going to be any flavor of “-aholic,” is probably not among the worst you could be. I don’t think God will say to anyone, “You forgave too many times! [...]

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Not to be Confused with the “Blue Plate Special”

I recently sent out an email to some IRL friends with the subject line, “because I didn’t have quite enough on my plate.”
My pastor wrote back that she hoped I’d be able to feel not so much that my plate was full, but that my cup runneth over.
My Mom remains in the hospital. [...]

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What I am doing these days when I’m not blogging

I’m emailing. And phone calling. A lot. Here’s this afternoon’s emails. I put them in normal prose order, i.e., you don’t have to read them bottom to top, as you would if I’d lifted them directly from email. The woman corresponding with me is a 70-something cousin, I don’t know [...]

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A Mother’s Day

For the second time in three weeks, I walked up to my mother’s bedside, in a place not her home, and my heart sank. “Oh my God, this is it. She is dying.”
It’s been two weeks since my last visit, and she’s so much smaller. My strong and busy mom [...]

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What is wrong with your candidate?

Caution: It’s getting political up in here…
Some of you know this, and it may surprise some others: I love politics. I love political conversation, debate, inquiry. I always have. From the time I was little, I watched the conventions and I SO wanted to grow up and be a delegate. [...]

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put the lyme in the coconut . . .

At long last. Rather than trying to write you a post, I have copied a letter that I’m sending out to interested IRL friends. As you’ll see, I have no idea whether this is legit, nor where it will lead, but here we go:
Dear Friends,
I’m sending this out to all those who’ve [...]

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Official Diagnosis

It’s WTF Disease. That is to say, I saw an expert in ALS who said that while it is understandable that ALS would be a concern, given my symptoms, the fact that I have good days with remission of some symptoms tells her that I do not have ALS. (Reminder — there’s no [...]

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Lonely

One of the toughest things about WTF Disease is the isolation of it — the doing it all by myself. If I said to someone, back in the day, “I have a kidney stone,” I would invariably get, “Oh, you poor thing, I had one of those back in ‘82 . . . ” [...]

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With a little help from my friends

UPDATE, 10/18 p.m. Thank you all for your kindness, your love, prayers, and healing thoughts. Nana is doing better today. Some right hand weakness and some speech trouble, but as these things go, we can’t complain. There’s every reason to think she’ll continue improving. Off to pick up Jif and [...]

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