Living Donation
Giving the gift of a kidney, a lobe of a lung, or a portion of the liver, pancreas or intestine, living donors offer patients an alternative to waiting on the national transplant list for an organ from a deceased donor. The number of living organ donors is more than 6,000 per year, and one in …
Playing by the Rules?
I’ve heard friends and acquaintances express wonder and concern at how some individuals don’t “play be the rules” during these challenging times. Seeing some people in public wearing what I sarcastically call an “invisible mask” (failing to wear a mask at all), or wearing it around the neck, or below the nose is more than …
Memorial Day
A day for remembering. A day for cherishing. A day for gratitude for the memories, the love, the laughter and the tears. God Bless not only all those here with us but also those gone, missed and still loved, honoring and holding them forever in our hearts.
Further Reading
I’ve done a lot of reading to help understand the meaning of my experiences with Josh. Some, in fact many, are about reincarnation, some about healing after the loss, much about the spirituality experience that I have grown to accept and celebrate. These have been the most helpful and emotionally supportive while attempting to move …
Ode to Josh
“The “Ode to Josh” blossomed into existence in March 1998. Apparently therapy of my own making, I have written poetry and letters to Josh and my favorite, the “Ode”, may be seen in a later chapter. One dark night I could hear rhyming verses in my head which literally woke me up out of a …
How do YOU spell F-R-E-E-D-O-M?
It seems pretty silly to be excited about playing golf, but at this point, it is fantastic freedom. Last week my partner (in two different golf leagues) and I wanted to play a practice rounds (practicing both golf and Social Distancing). The weather, however, was very uncooperative, being in the low 40’s (and probably 5 …
Gratitude
Well, as we’re contemplating perhaps winding this isolation down (I have to admit that I’m just a touch hesitant about this), I’m thinking of the beginning of golf season and getting back outside in the – at long last – warmer weather. It reminds me of when Josh and I were learning to golf, back …
Corona Wonderings, written on April 5, 2020
As I sit here at my keyboard this beautiful sunny morning, I see a normal Spring day outside my window. I wear earphones as I listen to “God’s Healing Frequencies” on YouTube. The neighborhood seems so green and beautiful, yet strangely barren to me. It makes me wonder what it was like for my mom …
The Loss of a Child, the Overwhelming Grief; Surviving Afterwards
The first thing I have to say is that a parent can have no expectations as to how much time your recovery will take. You’ll hear things all over the board. For me, two years seemed to generally be the beginning of my turn-around time, but everyone is going to be different. I certainly don’t …
Awaiting Transplant
The wait for transplant was a very difficult and emotional phase of our experience. It began in August of 1994 with one of our regular Pulmonary Clinic recheck appointments. This was when we learned that the transplant could wait no longer. Josh was running out of time and time was not on our side when …