Peace on Earth

A good friend sent me this wonderful image. When it came through the e-mail she glittered and sparkeled. I don't know how to copy it to do that on the blog.

Peace on Earth.

thank-you for comment!

Wow, thanks for the good wishes and comment, I love comments and I hardly ever get any. My e-mail is ddmichel@charter.net, I would love it if you sent your e-mail address to mine so I can write you. Awesome, thanks.

Happy Solstice

I wish all of you a happy returning of the sun to our hemisphere. I am so sorry that we were not able to have the party this year - I was so looking forward to it. Thanks for your understanding, I am thinking ahead to the summer solstice party......try, try again.

Technology, I love it. I am sitting on a bench, outside the closed (too late) library. I was so disappointed that it was not open. I then realized I should still be able to hook in to the WiFi, and wa-la! Internet! It is a bit difficult typing on my lap - but it is now a true laptop. I really like that I can sit here in southwest Florida and write to friends and stay connected.


Mom has good days and bad days. The doctor told us the next 2 weeks would be hard. Mom called the doctor a con artist. Yesterday was a bad day, today was a good day. I think it is going to be this way for awhile.

mom's doing better

I am happy to report that mom is doing better. She saw the doctor and dentist on Monday. They fixed her mouth plate so that she can talk now and yesterday she actually was able to eat something. I am very glad I am here and able to help.

Her spirits are perking up and it is a great thing to see. We still have a ways to go, it was a massive surgery, they took out the roof of her mouth, and she will have to have radiation treatment but she is much more comfortable and that is wonderful. Last night she took her plate out and put it back in herself and that was a big accomplishment.

Thank-you for all you e-mails and support, I really appreciate it and it has gotten me through.

I wish you all a very merry christmas and a great new year!!

back to Florida

Dad called yesterday and asked how soon I could get there. I am leaving for Portland this morning and flying out at 6:30 AM tomorrow for SW Florida. I am glad that they are willing to let me help them. I have been hoping for this call.

Beth and Em are meeting me in Portland, I am bringing their Christmas presents and we will have a little Christmas tonight.

I will just miss William who will not be home from helping his parents in Sacramento until Sunday or Monday. Hopefully he will join me in Florida soon.... At least this time I am bringing my computer and I will be in touch.

Well this is a good thing, I was starting to lose my tan anyway! Ha!

Thanks for all your love and support - I really appreciate it.

holding steady

Mom is home and she should be feeling better soon, I really hope.

Everything feels like it is on hold in my life. I have tried to think of a blog that would not be about my mom, but I can't think of one yet.

My life in these last 2 weeks home have been almost monastical. William is in Sacramento. We know very few people here and have even fewer friends, having moved to southern Oregon almost 5 years ago. I am quite alone. That part is not so hard, but it is cold, rainy and dark here. I have put up lots of christmas lights and that does cheer it up a bit. I put lights on the little cedar tree growing in the yard and light across the back porch. Red lights on the dining room cabinet, white lights on the mantles over the stove. Hard to come back from even a short stay in the tropics, to a northern climate.



I spend a lot of the day waiting to hear how mom is. In between waiting, I put wood in the wood fired hot tub and go in once a day, which has been really good for relaxing, being outdoors and getting warm.



We are having a Winter Solstice Party next week and I have sent out the following invitations:

I love celebrating the solstice, it is non denominational, non cultural - it is planetary! The days start to get a little longer in the Northern Hemisphere and a little shorter in the southern, not man made, nature made. A holiday that is for everyone alive on the planet, a cosmic party, 10:08 Pacific Standard time on December 21st and 1:08 AM Eastern Standard time on December 22.

This is our 4th annual solstice party, last one was at summer solstice. Where in fact it was very cold. There was a cool wind blowing and we dressed for summer and were cold. Last year at the winter solstice party, we knew it would be cold and were very comfortable in front of the bonfire, hanging out outdoors on the longest night of the year. I wish all my friends could be here.

a little better

Mom is doing a little better. Of course it was more extestive than they thought and she lost a lot of blood. They think they got it all and it had not gone into her lymph. She was intensive care until yesterday evening and now in her own room. She sat up yesterday and talked to Dad on the phone. Great progress! We don't know when she is going home yet, but I am planning my trip back down.

Again thanks for all your prayers and concern. Friends are such a good thing to have.

mom's surgery today

Thanks friends for all your support. Mom has surgery today at 10 am PST.

Recent photo from Florida, me with my brother, mom and dad.

Thanks for all your prayers.

better news

Thanks to everyone who contacted me with prayers and good wishes for my mom.

Since she saw the doc at the cancer center last Wednesday, we have better news. The tumor is very operable and she is scheduled for surgery next Friday. The operation takes about an hour and she can go home the next day. The doctor was, as my mom told it, a very classy woman, and told her that she was a healthy and young 76 year old and everything looked good for the surgery and recovery.

Since the surgery was a week out, I came home with William on Thursday. I could see that my parent's were looking forward to being alone for a week to get themselves together. When and if they need me, I will fly back. It was really hard for me to leave, but sometimes that is the most you can do for someone - give them the absence of you - which gives them their space.

It was very fortuitous that we were there when we were. I think we helped them considerably by being there. My mom's first responce to the cancer diagnosis was, I am not willing to try anything and will just die. I did some research on the internet and told her it was very operable and had a great success rate. I told her about my friends who have battle cancer and survived, Seiza and Jim especially. I told her who cares if you have a plate in your mouth, you can breath, eat, taste, see, and still love. And please don't leave us alone on this planet with dad.....that made her laugh.

My parents are a unit as William likes to say. They have been together since high school. He was the captian of the football team and she was the queen of the prom.