Good morning... Enjoying a short visit with my parents in Ohio, I ran across a half page paper on a table in their villa. Reading the words out loud to myself, I thought, "An oak tree. What a wonderful symbol of my parents as people." At ages 88 and almost 87, [...]
Good morning... As we relax into my parent's independent living villa in Ohio, I feel deeply at home. How grateful I am for my mom's ability to return to this special space after weeks in the care center, recovering from two falls, an RSV diagnosis, a scary ICU stay, and a nasty bout of pneumonia. With help from [...]
Good morning... Today, my dad turns 88 years old. From Atlanta, Georgia to Olmsted Falls, Ohio, I send my early morning "Happy Birthday" wish to the man who most regularly reads our daily blog. My dad also loves to read newspaper articles, especially ones written by Terry Pluto, columnist for the local paper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This [...]
Good morning... I began my 62nd birthday week writing a blog post entitled The Art of Aging. Now, look what I just found tucked on our bookshelf - a book entitled The Art of Aging by Sherwin B. Nuland. I vaguely remember a generous friend giving me this gift a while back, and I had yet to open [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, I received this precious birthday card from my parents in Ohio. It blended beautifully with the touching poem I received at 7:30 am. "Birth-day" by Lucille Clifton blessed my inbox. The poem's first words and final words sum up our life at every age. today we are possible. what we will become waits in us [...]
Good morning... A handful of people disagreed with a quote I shared in our last post, a quote from John Mark Comer's book Practicing the Way. On page 74, Comer writes: “The spiritual teacher Pete Scazzero once told me a maxim that was passed on to him by an older, wiser mentor: ‘The best decade of your life [...]
Good morning... As I turn 62 on Sunday, March 23rd, I am learning so many marvelous, new things. The best birthday cake is shared. A friend in our therapeutic community group shared with us a homemade pound cake. My piece to eat and my piece to take home were instead sliced and shared with about eight young adult [...]
Good morning... One long day in the ER. A short night in a regular room. Two exhausting days in the ICU. Suffering seizures and diagnosed with RSV, my mom was unresponsive for three full days. We did not know what we would find when we went to the hospital on day four. We got into the ICU around [...]
Good morning... After a really happy Valentine's Day in Ohio with my parents, my siblings, our Norwegian exchange student and her young adult son, my mom's cough spiked a fever of 102. Filled with doses of cough medicine and Tylenol, we tucked her into bed. Later, from the guest room in my parents' villa, I heard the click, [...]
Good morning... After climbing in the back seat and exchanging happy hellos at the airport, the first thing I noticed was my mom's cough. Pesky and persistent, her cough was concerning, still our natural conversation took on its own life. We enjoyed a yummy Olive Garden take-out dinner and a relaxing evening together, but my mom's cough was [...]
