I realized last week that I may not actually remember seeing the first time that man walked on the moon. As my brother said, I remember remembering it, but that's not quite the same thing. The memory I have in my head is of a different house than we lived in during July of 1969, so I've likely mixed up a later moon walk with the first one.
A few weeks ago, Dale and I swapped some emails trying to piece together time lines of memories from our childhood. I have a slight advantage in getting things straight by being one year and three months ahead in age. Having that discussion fresh in my mind is what made it suddenly clear that I had the first moon walk memory in the wrong house.
Walter Cronkite's voice is present in my memories of the Apollo program.
This month has been challenging for what's left of my family now that our parents are gone. Dale was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in the same month that his girl friend of fourteen years, Jana, was diagnosed with heart failure.
Jana ended up in the rehab unit of a nursing home, hopefully for a temporary stint, while they work out what she may or may not be able to do now that she can't take many of the drugs she used to take for her rheumatoid arthritis. Jana's condition was critical for a couple of the days that she was in the hospital, so her current situation is much improved if still surrounded by a lot of uncertainty.
Dale's cancer is slow-growing, not aggressive, and very treatable. He's to undergo a battery of tests in the next week or so to determine the extent of the disease. Then, there will be a decision-making process about treatment with one of the options being "watchful waiting." The other options are a variety of chemotherapy regimens -- all of which are much less damaging than what I went through in 1985. With modern chemo, many people get a treatment in the morning and go to work in the afternoon, often missing very little work. The worst side effect is often fatigue.
Everyone involved is hopeful and in good spirits, most of the time, now that we seem to have turned the corner from what felt like an acute situation a couple of weeks ago to long term issues.
A few weeks ago, Dale and I swapped some emails trying to piece together time lines of memories from our childhood. I have a slight advantage in getting things straight by being one year and three months ahead in age. Having that discussion fresh in my mind is what made it suddenly clear that I had the first moon walk memory in the wrong house.
Walter Cronkite's voice is present in my memories of the Apollo program.
This month has been challenging for what's left of my family now that our parents are gone. Dale was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in the same month that his girl friend of fourteen years, Jana, was diagnosed with heart failure.
Jana ended up in the rehab unit of a nursing home, hopefully for a temporary stint, while they work out what she may or may not be able to do now that she can't take many of the drugs she used to take for her rheumatoid arthritis. Jana's condition was critical for a couple of the days that she was in the hospital, so her current situation is much improved if still surrounded by a lot of uncertainty.
Dale's cancer is slow-growing, not aggressive, and very treatable. He's to undergo a battery of tests in the next week or so to determine the extent of the disease. Then, there will be a decision-making process about treatment with one of the options being "watchful waiting." The other options are a variety of chemotherapy regimens -- all of which are much less damaging than what I went through in 1985. With modern chemo, many people get a treatment in the morning and go to work in the afternoon, often missing very little work. The worst side effect is often fatigue.
Everyone involved is hopeful and in good spirits, most of the time, now that we seem to have turned the corner from what felt like an acute situation a couple of weeks ago to long term issues.
Collage credits: Everything from Phuong Ton's Veiled Moonlight kit except the earth which is from Tangie Baxter's Chronicles of Imagination, Chapter 3.
2 comments:
Thinking of you and your family.
Martha
Hi Joy- My best wishes to your brother for a good outcome.
Off-topic: I am debating whether to leave this message on such a sensitive, touching post but I wanted to include you so here goes.
I mailed the St. Louis food bloggers asking if they would like to get together to watch the movie "Julie and Julia" next weekend (fri/sat/sun Aug 7-9). I could not find your e-mail address so I thought I would leave this comment.
If you are interested, would you please contact me via my blog so I can keep you posted on the details? Thank you and best wishes.
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