The grass is green and shiny with dew, the trees are leafed out with tender green leaves, the sky is a vivid blue with little puffs of white and the sun that has decided to get up is shining in my window. It is very quiet here at my apartment. Isabella (the 2 year old across the hall) is obviously still asleep because by this time she has usually had two or three of her "terrible twos" episodes. No dogs are barking - not even Houston who has had his bites of toast and now gone back to sleep for another nap. So you see, with all of this quiet solitude it provides me with time to reflect and think about life in general.
This has been a week of ups and downs, laughs and frowns, happiness and sadness - many emotions. My week started with the news that one of my friends had lost her 47 year old daughter to death. Her daughter, Monica, like my daughter, Kim, had followed each others progress through the head/neck cancer malady, even sharing the same radiation oncologist and chemo oncologist and surgery doctors at Vanderbilt. Both daughters were pronounced "cancer free" and both were still suffering the ravages of radiation and chemo to their bodies. Monica, however, had a stroke and has been battling that for a couple of months. Saturday she took a nap and woke up in Heaven. Good for Monica - Sad for her mother, Joanna, and for the rest of us that knew and loved her. After arranging food for the family at the funeral home and being a member of the audience at the funeral I moved on to the rest of my week's activities. My volunteer work at Vanco Manor Nursing Home is such a rewarding activity. I go into the rooms that are assigned to me and take away the dead flowers from the previous week, wash out the bud vase that has a Madison Church of Christ tag around the vase, fill it with fresh colorful flowers and if the patient wants to talk, I talk. If the patient wants to be left alone I quietly leave. If the patient wants to cry I put my arm around her and we pray. Sometimes we tell each other a joke or an incident that we deem to be very funny. This takes two hours of my day once a week and if they, the patients, enjoy it as much as I then it is a great way to spend a Monday morning.
I went back to my eye doctor and after the most thorough examination through every kind of weird looking machine you can imagine he pronounced my eye surgery to be successful. All scars that were on my eye are gone and the surface is smooth as can be. I do not have to go back to him for a year. The macular degeneration is the same and that is a good thing (the no change part not the disease). I have to wear dark glasses when in the sunlight or even the glare of a cloudy day. My regular glasses that I use for reading may need to be changed but that is for another doctor to decide. Anyway the door is closed for now on eyesight problems!!!! A praise that all went so well, I say.
My committee that is planning a 60th Anniversary Class Reunion met this week. We really didn't have a lot of business to conduct but we all brought a sack lunch, discussed our plans for the event, visited with each other as we ate our sandwiches and parted with plans to meet next month and "really get down to work". These people are so dear to me. Some of the members of this committee were people I went to elementary school, junior high school and graduated with in 1951. Isn't it wonderful to have friends that you have loved for 60 years? I find that this condition does not exist for a lot of my friends or even for my children. We were a different breed of children in the "good old days" I guess. Another praise for good friends.
Speaking of school, East High in particular, I went to East last night as a guest at the Dinner to Honor the Graduating Seniors. My friend, Rip Ryman (President of Alumni Association) and I sat for several minutes prior to the event and talked to the principal, Steve Ball. He is such a fascinating man and has made such a difference in the school since he came from Chattanooga to work at East Literature Magnet School. He told us that the school will be dropping the Literature word from it's name and become East High Magnet School. This is to reflect that it is a true magnet school, admissions governed by a lottery drawing (they have a long waiting list) and their programs are hard and extensive. The graduation rate is 99 percent and 90 percent of the graduates go to college. I met the Salutatorian who boasted a Vanderbilt shirt and has a scholarship to the university where she will study pre-med. My role at this dinner was to speak to the graduates about the scholarship program and to present a certificate to the Scholarship Recipient who happened to be the Valedictorian of the 2011 graduating class. She is a delightful young woman who will go far in this world. The whole evening was a grand experience to be invited to walk the hall and sit in the place that I spent so much of a happy childhood while looking at a totally different environment from what it was at that time. I consider this school, the programs, the teachers and most especially the dedicated principal to be a praise also.
So you see this whole blog has been just as the title implies - random thoughts. No real theme, no real purpose, just things I'm thinking and sharing with whomever takes the time to read this blog. I need to say to some of you that have written me encouraging me write a book that I started a book years ago and just don't seem to be able to be consistent. Maybe one day I will do with the book like I do with this blog - sit down and just start writing and not know when to quit. I do know that now is the time to quit this session and say to all of you that tomorrow is Mother's Day. I love the way that my children honor me, not just on Mother's Day but every day. I am the most blessed of all women. On Mother's Day, however, I give so much thought to my mother whom I miss every day since she died on May 13, 1988. Nobody loves you like your mother except God. They both love unconditionally and that gives me great comfort and allows me to say to you that God is good - all the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment