Goodby Mary

I read recently about the death of Mary Travers, Mary from the 60's folk group, Peter. Paul, and Mary. PPM was, and still is, one of my favorite groups. I was introduced to their songs in my early teen age years at summer camp. Great times singing around the campfire accompanied by two or three guitars. It was the best of times.

I had all their early music and most of the later stuff. I play the Christmas CD every year.

When I first met Richard, he was a heavy metal fan, eventually he became a PPM fan as well. We saw them in concert twice in the eighties, the second time we took the kids.

Mary died from leukemia. We stumbled upon an interview she did on public TV several months after she had a matched unrelated donor (MUD) stem cell transplant. She was doing well and considered herself cured.

We watched the interview from our rental apartment in Rochester, MN where Richard had just undergone the same procedure at Mayo. She gave us hope that he would survive because she was 14 years older than he was, and statistically, older adults have much higher mortality.

But in the end, The Beast won.

I probably won't play that CD this Christmas.






Also posted to My New Reality

Baseball, Bittersweet

We went on our annual baseball trip to Kansas City last week end. It was fun, but would have been better with Richard there.

This is the front of our traditional tee shirt.

2008
2007

The Beast Takes Another

Andre from On Multiple Myeloma... died yesterday. He had an infection in his lungs that was treated surgically. He was unable to recover.

I have enjoyed reading Andre and Ed's story. Andre chose to fight for life agressively, by choosing an allo transplant.

I have been reading blogs for five years and following the ACOR list for ten. Too many deaths...

Family Fourth

New Myeloma Blog

I found another new blog today. Jan is from Florida and has had a SCT and now relapsed on Revlimid. I've added the address to the links.

Happy Father's Day
(photo June 29, 2008)

Memorial Day

Memorial day is tomorrow. I went to the cemetery today to beat the rush. Richard's stone looks nice. If you look close, you can see me taking the picture reflected in the glare off of the stone.

We never talked about a headstone before he died, so I did this one on my own with the help of my daughter Erin. It's a costly venture, but I think it turned out well.

What determines cost the most is the shipping distance of the raw stone to the monument maker. Laser engraving can put a reproduction of any photo or any other image you want on the stone. So many choices!

I liked the baseball and the symbolism of home plate.

Happy Memorial Day.

Good By Toonces

I killed my cat Toonces today, or rather, I had her euthanized..the result is the same. She was 19 years old and was having trouble walking. It was her time.

Richard used to joke about who would die first, Richard or the cat. The cats wins I guess.

I just couldn't stay with her when they gave her the medication. I stayed with my other cat Judy and the feelings were just too intense. I feel the same for Toonces. I wonder why the death of a pet is so upsetting? I cried more for Toonces and Judy than for Richard.

The grieving for him goes on, it's like a weight on my head all the time.

I don't know if I'll get another cat. I won't likely get another husband. He's not replaceable.

Toonces has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. Maybe she's with Richard now.