Friday, July 29, 2011

Time


Today would have been my mom's birthday, she would have been 93, but she passed 13 years ago, at 80. It doesn't seem like it has been that long to me, sometimes when I am half asleep I hear what sounds like her voice, but it is R, my daughter, that I hear. Lots of mom's ancestors lived to be into their 90s -- her mom died at 98, and doing genealogy I find many who lived to over 100, remarkable for the time when medicine was so primitive, if available at all. Mom was born in 1918, the year of the big flu epidemic that swept the world, especially in England. Her folks lived on a farm here in West Virginia, and certainly benefited from limited exposure to travelers and such. She had a twin, but her sister (my aunt) died at 57 from a stroke, so 80 was pretty remarkable given that Mom had diabetes and a bad heart.

I had a second transfusion and will probably need another, if my extreme fatigue is anything to go by. The oncologist doesn't seem too concerned, although he says many have the entire 6 cycles and never need blood, but I try not to read anything dire into his comments. I worked in the blood bank at the hospital for 5 years or so, and the vast majority of blood was used by bone marrow cancer patients, post ablation of their own bone marrow. That, and extreme bleed-outs from trauma, which were always a crisis for us, especially on weekends when there were only two of us in the blood bank. Glad all of that is over and done with, I can't imagine having that kind of stressful job now, tho it seemed OK at the time.

I've been slowly (very) organizing our photos from the last 30 years - I should say, ours + my parents' + N's parents' + my grandmother's photos. I did real well there for a while, but now it feels like such drudgery with no end in sight. I gave up on chronological sorting and went with categories like horses, pets, our kids, family and (drat) miscellaneous, for each collection. When the kids were small, I always got triple prints made and sent one set off to the grandparents, and now I have three prints of each back again, in no particular order. The albums that I do have are just going to stay the way they are, even tho a lot of what is in them is meaningless now -- flowers, friends, photos too dark, too light, bad exposure, etc. and I am rigorously throwing away all the negatives. And if it is a photo I took, and even I can't identify who or where or when, out it goes. I have 6 huge plastic tubs to go through, and if I don't do it now, when would I?

I can't think of what I wanted to write here, so I'll post this for now and stick the rest on above or within this once my chemo brain spits the topic out.

Bumper sticker for the day: " The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age."

4 comments :

Dina Roberts said...

Happy birthday to your mom. It doesn't surprise me that it doesn't seem like 13 years since she's been gone. Time goes by so fast.

Hopefully the longevity genes will be passed on to you. You might need the extra years to go through all the photos. It sounds like an interesting chore, but I can see how it would get overwhelming after awhile.

I'm sorry about your fatigue. I hope you feel better.

IWASNTBLOGGEDYESTERDAY said...

Hi, I have a phot project too, very similar, its daunting. I'm scanning a lot up to share on facebook with family as well, very time consuming.

I hope the fatigue settles,I knwo what thats like from arthritis...blahh

my mother has been gone for 6 years, seems liek a month ago sometimes. 61 is too young. My grandmother on my fathers side lived till 104,just 4 months shy of her 105th. always lived at home with my uncle untl last 2 weeks of her life when she got an infection, became confused and went to a nursing home from the hospital, luckily she just thought she was in another hospital.seems all the important women of my growing years have gone now.
I love Dinas comment :"Hopefully the longevity genes will be passed on to you. You might need the extra years to go through all the photos." :)

SkippyMom said...

Wow - to live to 80. What a gift you and your family received from your Mom. I understand missing her. I miss my Mom too. It isn't easy to live into the later years, but your Mom sure did a great job as I am sure you will do, the fighter that you are.

I admire your strength and your perseverance through this. I know it is hard, but your attitude goes a long way to getting your through. I can see it.

Take care.

SkippyMom said...

I wanted to pop back over and let you know I left you an award at my blog.

I hope you like it. I truly admire you and you are a great blogger friend.

http://skippymom.blogspot.com/2011/08/pretty-pictures.html