My grandmother was a spectacular woman, a true warrior who stopped at nothing to keep her family safe and well fed. She was ahead of her time in ways that are easy to admire and hard to explain: she was fierce, a very confident and assertive piece of work that always spoke her mind. When... Continue Reading →
Resilient. Strong. Brave. These are a few adjectives thrown my way these past four weeks. My mother's death left a trail of bills and paperwork that had to be addressed as quickly as possible to ensure we didn't drop the ball and lost valuable assets to non payment or other technicalities. I've become all these... Continue Reading →
I don't think people get it... I am the person responsible for everything that happened. Me. I was the reason my mother had a plan for everything just to ensure my mental and physical safety. Every decision she ever made was for me, later for us, since the whole point of giving me a sister... Continue Reading →
"SHE IS THE VETERAN!" My uncle, his wife, my sister and I all yell in unison. The Funeral Home's sales representative has been taking down her info for 20 minutes and conveniently forgot what we had said. Every answer to the previous questions revealed aspects of my mother's life that had been private and fuzzy... Continue Reading →
"It's a matter of days now..." Calmly, I booked the next flight out and took my time packing. If the message was accurate, I'd need to take with me clothes fit for a military funeral. The saving grace was that my husband was staying behind and could bring me anything I'd miss; Mom wanted him... Continue Reading →
Mom had barely made it to Christmas but my grandmother hadn't. Oh boy! My phone was blown up with messages of worry and urgency. The timing was brilliant and convenient, bare with me, assuming you believe grandma knew of the cancer and opted to avoid burying her firstborn. Between flight prices and obligations I decided... Continue Reading →
There's always a calm before the storm. The tumor's original scan. Isn't it impressive? To think that unevenly shaped - multiform mass had caused all this drama! I can't believe it's already December. Wow! Never in a million years did I think mom would be in hospice care at this age, much less waiting for... Continue Reading →
This year, 2018, marks the 10th anniversary of my wedding to W. As part of the celebration, I will be documenting our relationship from the proposal up to the wedding, and each year up to our 10th anniversary. For those following the story, year four was mid-late 2012/2013. Due to the DUI event horizon that... Continue Reading →
Picture of my mom in front of an A-10, early 80s, courtesy of her friend Angelo of the CI Rangers. The toughest part of this cancer journey has been seeing my mom slowly deteriorate, an inevitable spiral that has forced me to reflect on who she was, and what she has accomplished. She's a very... Continue Reading →
