Saturday Morning Updates

We were to have a full house for Thanksgiving, so we started cleaning the dining and living room for company. By “we” I mean Donna, but I’m helping with furniture, moving it around while she tackles different sections of carpet with a shampooer. By “were” I mean Donna’s sister Georgianna and her husband Don have now postponed their visit to Christmas, and our son Gregory has started a new job and may or may not be able drive down with our daughter-in-law Beth and grandson Quentin. We’ll have a clean house and a great feast anyway, even if it’s just us and our daughter Polly … and we don’t have a commitment from her yet.

So there’s that. So far today I’ve been busy filling bird feeders and backing up blogs. Next comes more of the afore-mentioned furniture moving, then a trip to the dog park with the pups (it’ll be Mr. B’s first visit). Living life at a jet-set pace, that’s us.

My sister Sue felt bad and short of breath and went to the doctor. Next thing she knew she was in a hospital bed with lung cancer, and then she died. The very same week a Tucson friend, Mike, felt bad and short of breath and next thing he knew he was in a hospital bed with pancreatic cancer, 80 pounds lighter than he’d been a month ago, and now it looks like he’ll die soon too. Donna and I went to visit him Thursday but he was heavily sedated and out of it. They transferred him to hospice yesterday.

This sucks and I want it to stop. Tell you what, I start to feel bad and short of breath, I’m taking aspirin and hoping for the best.

I wanted to share a couple of photos with you. That’s the real reason for this post.

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With my sister Sue a few days ago at the hospital in Belleville, Illinois

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The Woodford kids sharing a moment of badly-needed levity

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With Sue in happier times

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With Mike & his girlfriend Liz last spring


More soon. Thank you for visiting my little blog. Remember to keep a bottle of aspirin handy, kids.

One thought on “Saturday Morning Updates

  • Paul, thanks again, for sharing the most intimate of your life. After my TIA a year ago I feel so lucky that I’m still kicking around and yes I’m an aspirin taker these days after the doc. instructed me last year. 100mg a day in the evening has kept the doc. away and I do feel like a million $$$. I’m taken aback by all these cases of cancer and people not feeling well. In 1995 C-liver visited with me in Zeist and he brought his sister, brother in law and their 2 kids and I got to know his sister Judy reasonably well. They even came to visit with me in Panama City Beach when I still had my house there. Now he’d sent me a message that she’s fighting cancer too, and so did Rob Sneed, info me about his sister. Cancer sucks, how is it that “we” can take people to the moon (and further) and back and cannot find a solution for this damned illness. Like you write I’m running out of breath as well now. Keep up the good work and I hope and wish that “you” (both) have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

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