Its only 10 days til Christmas and I am just now getting to my Christmas cards and letter. Every- thing is running about 4 times slow these days so some of you may well receive this after Christmas Day. Its the best I can manage right now as you will see. (Its the week after Xmas and I still have 50% of my cards & notes to get out. I have managed to ‘do’ Christmas and get all my checks written by deadline time, so now I can take my time to ‘visit’ with you and even answer some card notes from this year.)
I’ve seen a pattern this year in most of my early Xmas notes: first, news of the loss of dear friends and relatives. Thanksgiving week, my last uncle, Glenn age 92, died as did 2 Cincy friends in Phi Beta and Drama Workshop. Another pattern, which I guess we can begin to expect at our age, is various health problems. I joined this group on Oct. 30, when I got hit with 2 ruptured lower back discs (L4 & 5) and severe Sciatica in my left leg. After 2 weeks flat on my back with 24/7 excruciating pain from my spine to the tip of L.leg toes, my neurologist zapped me with a killer dose of 60mg of prednizone a day, which I am just now weaning off of, 4 weeks later. My walking is very restricted, slow and assisted with a four footed cane. Sciatic pain is present most of the time tho it is now muted. My good friend, Pam Smith, who got this condition a year ago, has taken a full year to recover, and still has to be careful, so I guess I know what to look forward to. At least now I am starting to walk farther distances and will start Physical Therapy sessions the week after Xmas. My New Addition, giving me a one floor condo, has been a God- send through all this.
Everyone has asked: “What caused it?” Nothing so dramatic as a fall, but a year of stress, emotional and muscle tension connected with the “W. Va. House” and land Bill Giles wanted to buy so “He could move down there & let his son, Michael, take care of him.”- on top of trying to ‘live my own life.’ Bill did not have the resources to purchase the house himself unless I helped him financially. Gee, I wish I could push the ‘rewind button’ back a year ago and say ‘No, we can’t do this’ , but I did not. So I made decisions this year, both personally and financially that have really put me pretty much ‘in a hole’ that I have to dig myself out of.. I tried to make the best informed and researched decisions possible, but con- stant ‘surprises from left field’ presented by the state of W.Va, insurance companies, and Bill and Michael kept negating rational research, expectations, and logic.
One cannot deny, putting a positive spin on it, that it has not been an adventure. The house is out in the hills, 7 miles SE of Hamlin, W. Va. where the ‘road becomes the creek is still the road’ just beyond our drive. (Chuck Yeager’s birthplace is just down the other side of ‘our’ mountain.) Built in the 1920’s, it now has 7 rooms — all heated with one woodburning ‘furnace’ sitting in the living room. Staying there on cold fall nights (25 degrees) was like living in the 19th century!!! I can’t tell you what a deep apprecia- tion of our modern life conveniences this has given me! We got a propane furnace/AC installed in Sept., but just this week! are getting it hooked up to its gas tank and turned on. And therein lies the “story of my year” — moving at the speed of W. Va. The house needed extensive renovation and everything we needed/tried to do presented problem upon problem, hours and hours of long distance calls, 8-10 trips to W.Va. thru Oct, etc,etc. I did all this work, Bill did—– and continues to have memory problems, and Paul Brunner, my builder/friend who built my new addition, did all the construction work in 4 separate 3-5 day trips in Aug, Sept, Oct, & Nov. Thank goodness for Paul; he has been my life saver this year.
It seems like 80% of this year has been devoted to Bill and his W. Va. House – like I was living his life, not mine. When I got sick, all 3 of my doctors, separately, and strongly with firm resolution, told me: “Carolyn, you have to forget everything else and take care of #1 – Yourself.” And that is my mantra and resolution, now and for the entire coming year. I have had some wonderful, happy times thruout the year. In March, Annette Roth, her daughter Caroline, and I drove to Chicago, met Marienne Skinner and we went to the Chicago Civic Opera to see Verdi’s “Masked Ball” starring Neil Shicoff and Dmitri Hvorostovsky — with Wayne Tigges in a large supporting role. Annette and I sang with Wayne at the Presby. Church Choir when he was at CCM (UC Cin.Conservatory of Music). He was thrilled to have his friends/fans from Cincy show up backstage to see him — and ignore Neil Shicoff – Ha. In June, my Sheltie, Brandy age 9, developed diabetes so I now have lots of vet visits and a strict feeding schedule (every 12 hrs) with insulin shots. Cookie (12) is fine. She spent a lot of time with Annette and her new, assertive large black puppy (while Brandy went to W. Va. with me) and developed a whole new interesting personality! Also, in June, I became President of our chapter of Phi Beta, a national fine arts fraternity whose members are trained and work professionally in theater, dance, art, music, etc. We had our usual Flea Market in July and decided it was too much hard work for “us little old ladies” for the return on our money to do it again. My agenda for the year as Pres. is to increase membership; so we had a reception in Aug and initiated 4 new members in Sept. — 3 of the 4 were men. National Phi Beta has had men as members since the mid 80’s, but these were the first to become members of our chapter. We hope to initiate more members in March.
I continue my work as a Standardized Patient in the Univ. of Cin. Med School program. Just learned Friday that they got a $3 million grant to expand the Geriatric Study Program, so I will have even more work next year. In one Scenario, each month I will play a patient with beginning Alzheimers in week 1, mid term stage in week 2 and late stage in week 3. It was my work as a stroke patient each June that got me in so fast as a real patient with the top neurologist in that program to treat my back and sciatic nerve pain and problem. I still moderate my ILR class “The Play’s the Thing” each spring and fall, but am cutting back even more on Drama Workshop involvement. I did my last History Photos (shoot the play while in progress at a final rehearsal) at the Sept. show, “Morning’s at 7”, a show I acted in 20 years ago. I have been TDW photographer for 35 years and that seemed like a good ‘bookend’ to my photo career. It is TDW 50th anniversary year, so during this year, I am putting together 6 photo history display boards for the occasion. After 6 weeks of rehearsal in Aug/Sept, the first Sunday in Oct. I sang Brahms’ Requiem (in German) with the October Festival Choir. What a thrilling, uplifting experience!! Marienne Skinner came down from ILL. Oct. 15-18 to go to Tall Stacks and we had a wonderful time, but I walked too much for the physical shape I was in. That next week I went to W.Va for 4 days to work on the house; then barely finished the Oct. financial work and checks, when on Oct. 30 all activity came to a screeching HALT! Thruout all this madness of activity and its sudden cessation, the one thing that has kept me going, and offered stress relief, is music. Besides singing the Brahms, I attend almost every Cin. Symphony Concert. An evening with Paavo Jarvi and the sym. in Music Hall is so spiritually uplifting. I can meditate, relax, renew my spirit and energy, as problems seem to float away for a while. And I can’t end this epistle without offering heartfelt thanks to Annette and to Glenn Coven and so many other dear friends who have rallied to my aid in helping do countless little jobs for me that I physically can’t handle right now. A mantle of snow fell last night, making everything look like a beautiful Xmas card scene, filled with the joys of the season. May these joys be yours and I wish you much happiness and health in the coming year.
July Post Script: My last 25 cards are going out in July, 2004. This year’s news will be in 2004 Xmas letter, but you at least need to have a health update. I did physical therapy in Jan and Feb. By April 1, I began to feel “I was well”; but I was still using my handicap sticker and a light cane thru June. Just now in July am I really starting to feel truly ‘back to normal’. I still can’t do any heavy lifting, and am terribly ‘out of shape’. Probably nothing a good regular exercise regimen wouldn’t solve.