Walking home from school to find my mom in the kitchen getting dinner started, or taking fresh-baked peanut butter cookies out of the oven onto a page of the Detroit Free Press on the kitchen table remain some of my most cherished childhood memories. We'd get to enjoy one or two cookies, but getting started on homework was priority, and not until that homework was finished could we turn on the television for an episode of the Little Rascals or Gilligan's Island before dinner. Then one day when we were at Aunt Irene's in Toronto, Dad got sick. Real sick. Mum had to get a job in order to provide health insurance for our family, and our routine quickly changed. I'd often come home from school to find Dad lying on the couch with his foot propped up on several pillows. Blood clots were ... View Post
To My Son & His Bride
The speech I was going to give was typed out & printed. I had my glasses with me this time; (I'd forgotten them when I read at R & H's wedding). I tweaked it the night before the wedding. But when it came time to read it, I decided to just "wing it," got up in front of everyone, and my mind went completely blank. Well, I managed to get my point across, and tell the story of why my son & I danced to "I'll be home for Christmas," but in the process, I forgot to mention a few names, so I decided I'd blog my words to P & H just as I did for R & H. There are so many people who have contributed to who Peter is today - too many to mention, really. I still just can hardly wrap my brain around how beautiful a story God writes. Anyhoozywhatsit, here's what I had to say ... View Post
Memories of St. Patrick’s Day
It must have been around the time I was in first or second grade when my mother signed me up to learn Scottish Highland dancing. One Saturday morning she dropped me off at a Scottish dance studio and that teacher expected me to swing my short little legs up onto this bar thingy and stretch, and I was like, "Ummmm.... nopity nope nope. Not gonna happen!" I never went back. Then my mother decided I should take fiddle lessons from a lady named Colleen who lived around the block from us, back when "around the block" was an accurate description of where someone lived. I hated it. I waited until the last minute to practice, and then showed up expecting to impress my instructor, Colleen, who would be very, very unimpressed with my lack of progress. I knew I wasn't fooling her, and really ... View Post
Hey 2021 – Awwwwww, See Ya!
Happy New Year! It's been at least a decade & a half since I wrote a holiday letter updating family & friends on all my biz, but that's certainly not because there's been a lack of any significant biz to report. The truth is, I don't really know why I haven't written a holiday update in so long. Perhaps I haven't written one because everyone seems to know everything that's going on now-a-days anyways. My generation does do a pretty good job of keeping the whole world updated, right down to a photo of what we ate for breakfast this morning. It could be because someone actually told me years ago my letters were so annoying that they actually made her angry. (They probably really were annoying, and I think she might have been right). Maybe I avoided writing it because my ... View Post
Gong (Gone)!
Recently I had a day off and the opportunity to sit at the kitchen table of my friend Edna. That's always a treat, and I never walk away without having gleaned some little nugget of wisdom. This particular day was no different. Edna and I frequently exchange emails, updating one another on our families, our prayer requests, what's happening in our worlds, we discuss books we're reading, and when we'll see each other again. Every TIME either of us type the word "time," in our emails, or handwrite it in a greeting card, we highlight it, underline it, capitalize it... It seems as though we've had hundreds of conversations about TIME over the years that we've enjoyed our friendship. And learning how to be a good steward of my TIME is something I have Edna to thank for. (I'm still a ... View Post
Hospice Stories
Throughout the course of my week as a hospice nurse, I have more conversations than I could have ever possibly imagined I would, when I began this job. I call families of patients in one place, while driving to another location to see someone else's loved one, and then update that family on the way to the next stop. I can't even tell you the last time I was able to listen to the radio, or even remembered to turn it on when I'm not working! Some conversations are short. Some conversations are... well, not so short. There are some conversations that are just really, really hard to have, and there are other weekly calls for updates that I look forward to. One call in particular I always enjoyed comes to mind tonight because my patient's son was in the same season of life as me. He ... View Post
Rory
It's Apple Cider Mill season in Michigan, and yesterday Rory & Holly invited me to accompany them, Lyla, & Owen to Blakes Cider Mill. We took a hay ride on the back of a tractor, with Lyla and Owen dangling their feet and pointing out all of the props for the haunted hay ride at night. We walked through wet grass, trying not to trip on all of the apples that had already fallen to the ground, filled a bag with Pink Lady apples, and then hopped on the tractor to head back. After that, we petted goats, ponies, and rabbits, laughed at polka-dotted chickens, and helped the kids climb to the top of the haystack. Then we watched as the kids rode these (I'm not even sure what to call them), bike things - kind of like a tractor crossed with a tricycle kind of bike... and then I ... View Post
Hair Appointments & The Cross
When I find myself telling a story over and over, I figure - it must be one worth sharing, and this is one I seem to tell frequently, so here goes... It was probably about five years ago. I was working my normal 12-hour shift in ICU, and this particular day my patient was a 94-year-old woman who'd had a stroke that morning. (We'll call her Norma, because I like that name ;) Norma's grandson had found her slumped over in a chair, and she was unable to move the right side of her body, her face drooped, and the words she attempted to mumble really didn't make much sense. He called 911, and that's when she came to me. Norma's family members stood vigilant in the hospital ICU room throughout the day as I whisked her out for medical procedures, and interrupted them over and over for ... View Post