So little Miss Sally was spending many hours a day at my place for the last few months. She would frequently arrive in the morning, scratching at the bottom of the front door (she quickly learned that this was the most guaranteed way to get my attention to open the door).
When I was younger, I often heard about elders experiencing a slow decline in health. Well, it seems that health does not follow a predictable smooth graph downward. When I was 30, my younger doctor already started blaming "aging" for some health issues I was having. Say what? But then, I started feeling better again AND I changed doctors! But is that right that you hit your health peak in your 20s and there is no real plateau before slipping downward?
For quite some time, I have been meaning to start blogging but never get around to doing it. But one of my new year resolution is to get started and share my experiences with those who might be interested. So here I go.
Granny Has 'Do Not Resuscitate' Tattooed on Chest: Wise or Wacky?
Talk about an edgy grandma. 81-year-old Joy Tomkins just got inked. But rather than getting a butterfly on her butt, she got the words "Do Not Resuscitate" on her chest. You know, just in case someone tries to save her life or something. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-14802369/, the earliest web reference)
The nephew is a very loving little man. Besides the excited hugs he delivers when he sees us, he will say "I love you" whenever he feels like it, no particular context needed. Or I'll get a big, sloppy kiss in the middle of some explanation of why he's not wanting to eat right now. And sometimes while playing, he kisses my hand and then goes on doing whatever.
The other day, I was in Safeway where, of all places, I saw these various stuffed animals. They are squarish with a head along one side and each corner has the legs/feet. Then on their sides, they have velcro pieces so you can fold them in half and keep it together to form a pillow. The nephew has one that is a dinosaur. He has lots of other normal stuffed animals with which we play all sorts of make-believe.
The nephew has been impressed with Miss Kitty ever since I told him about her. So he's been wanting to meet a live kitty and make friends. Well, someone just moved into our neighborhood with a very friendly, laid-back black and white cat. We don't know exactly who she belongs to (or more accurately, which humans she commands) but she likes our backyard (probably the combo of shade, some bare ground, the vegetable plants with the cool earth around them and the jungle of weeds that love our well-composted soil). I also talk with her and give her rubs whenever I'm out there and she comes over. So when the nephew came visiting recently, he got to meet my new friend.
So the nephew has been hoping to stay overnight here for a while now (without his Mom and Dad around). But Mom and Dad have been hesitant. They worry he'll not like waking up in a "new" environment or that he'll get sick while away from them. But we all discussed it and figured 5 years old is old enough to sleep at a house he's been in many times with people who have slept with him in his house many times. So....
What does one do with 50+ years of family papers and other stuff? Especially when there are no kids to pass things on to?
Years of photographs of loved ones and of those I cannot recognize. Military discharge papers. Letters from overseas written when Email had not even been imagined.
Do you have a best friend? If so, who? Some say it's their spouse. For others, someone from college. For me, it is my best friend from FIRST GRADE!!! And that was a while back......
Somehow, we were drawn to each other back then and became fast friends. But our parents did not really know each other so we only saw one another at school. That was fine though. We usually sat near each other in class if we could. And at recess, out together for whatever we would do then. I still have a few pictures taken with my first camera of the two of us standing shying together for the shot.
