We are home. Just a few hours after I wrote my last post filled with optimism about our travels, Marv said it’s time to go home. The word journey came to mind: we had to journey home on this journey of living with cancer As I made preparations, I decided I hate words we associate …
Category: Health
God’s Grace…
Just two weeks ago, my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer. We were traveling from Sioux Falls to Arizona when the call came. He’d made it clear to his doctors before we left that if results of previous tests were unfavorable, he was thankful for the life God has given him and would not be …
Growing Older: On Turning Seventy-six
The sobering thing for me about turning 76 is that I'm getting closer than ever to 80. Eighty! My head tells me I'm 29, my body says 99 on some days, and the me that's hanging around between these two ages is now on the way to 80. The most joyful thing about turning 76 …
Changes in Nursing Since I Retired
Sitting at my husband's hospital bedside recently, I marveled at the changes I saw in nursing since I retired just seventeen years ago. I know I sound really old, but here's a list of what I saw being done differently: The endless use of gloves: I only wore gloves if a patient was in isolation. …
Preparing for Death
Morbid, right? In a sense, yes. In another, no. Around twelve years ago, my four older siblings and their spouses started planning for their funerals by buying cemetery plots. I followed their actions via our email chats. Since I’m five to eleven years younger, I saw no need to start planning. Now, unbelievably, six of …
Caring Lessons Book Signing – July 22, 2017, 9-12 noon
Run on over tomorrow morning to Reach a Reader Bookstore in Sioux Falls for their July sale. Located at 101 N. Minnesota Ave (on the lower level of Canfield Interiors), this inspiring bookstore supports adult literacy programs (and appreciates their many volunteers). I am happy to have the opportunity to be there also for a …
Continue reading Caring Lessons Book Signing – July 22, 2017, 9-12 noon
Write Along with Me #2 : Tell It Slant
When I read that a suggested reading for my recent Write-by-the-Lake workshop with Amy Lou Jenkins was Miller and Paola’s Tell it Slant, I immediately got gut pain. Some years ago, during a writing workshop, the teacher had shown a page of an essay I’d written on a screen and asked the group of about …
Write Along with Me…
The fun is yet to be! Come with me, in spirit, to the Write-by-the-Lake Writer's Workshop & Retreat at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I’m getting ready to attend this retreat next week. And oh, what fun it is to prepare. I want to remind you, as I’ve done before, that your words will …
A Tribute to My Sister Esther – 1937-2017
I have her shoes, the new white Skechers she’d packed carefully in her “wear home from the hospital” bag. There’s something not right about this. We did not expect her death. We were ecstatic when we heard her surgery for cancer was successful. We were relieved when she transferred out of ICU, then greatly worried …
Flu as Time Waster
Not in a long time have I so effectively wasted time. You’d think being grounded for a week with the flu—the coughing kind, not the other—would open about ninety-six hours of time to catch up on sedentary tasks like reading the accumulating journals at your couch-side, sending a few cards out to cheer others, cleaning …
Write Along with Me 