Sunday, June 24, 2012

Next Chapter


Once again, I emerge from the depths with a little update and yet another promise to resume blogging.  Maybe this time it will take. For now? Three cheers for bullet points.



  • My sister died on Thursday, June 21.  You can find the Whole Sad Story in previous posts.  Her Stage IV breast cancer was diagnosed 6 months before our mother's death in 2009. She endured chemo, whole brain radiation, gamma knife surgery and suffered the worst side effects of them all.  We found out, about six months ago, that the cancer had returned in her bones; her subsequent rapid decline led us to infer that it had again bloomed in her brain.  The amazing nurses at Home Hospice   and Traditions Senior Living and Memory Care, who took such good and kind care of her over the last year, believe she had a left-side stroke on or about June 14.  I believe that most of her final week was pain free, for which I am grateful. 
  • Young Girl is tall, strong, beautiful, and smart at the twelve-thirteen midpoint.  She's an inch and a half taller than I am and stealing my shoes. The last six weeks of school were a struggle thanks to a nasty bout of drug-resistant strep combined with mononucleosis.  All of this made the crutching required by her knee injury even more atrocious.  She rarely made it through more than two hours of school each day, but still finished with straight As and outstanding test scores.  I could not be any prouder. She's enjoying a second much-deserved week at camp and will visit a friend in Tennessee next month, her first solo flight.
  • Our friends are our rocks right now, our true family.  Some of you know the details of the Great Unpleasantness (there's a southern euphemism for you, right up there with "The War of Northern Aggression") afoot in The Man's extended family.  Let's just say that my chosen sisters and brothers restore my faith in humanity.
  • I agreed to humiliate myself in a production at our local children's theater, opening July 6. I'd forgotten how much fun it can be to play.  This was a much needed lesson.