December 6, 2008
Greetings of the season to you. I do hope this has been an acceptably good year for you in spite of the national gloom and doom of recession; in spite of the usual losses and adversities we all must face. After 2 or 3 years of “normal humdrum” living, this has been a year of adventurous events filled with fun, nostalgia and deep personal meaning intermingled with my own losses and adversities.
In February, after 4 years of ‘not talking to me’, (even though I was handling all his business as power of Atty) Bill Giles asked me to come to W. Va. and talk. And so from March till now began a journey of commuting to W. Va. (500 mi. +/- each trip) to help Bill with doctors and other activities. He has progressively become unable to deal with things himself as his memory is slowly deteriorating. Physically, he appears healthy, but has aortic stenosis (75% + blockage with no symptoms). He could drop dead at any time, but stubbornly refuses to do what it takes to get the much needed aortic valve replacement operation. After a month of doctor visits in May/June, I drove Bill down to his daughter Susan’s home near Gainesville, Fla..
We took a ‘side trip’ thru Spartanburg, S.C. so I could visit Converse College, my first college teaching job 1956-7. While the campus has expanded 4 or 5 times its original size, Wilson Hall, the site of my theater, was like a time warp. Besides new seats and a lighting booth window in the back, it looked almost exactly
the same as it did 52 years ago!!! I was truly blown away. I could have walked out of the prop room and paint room yesterday. Then on to Florida.
While Sue drove Bill on down to West Palm area to see his brother, I got to spend 5 wonderful days at her High Springs home, chilling out with no cares or worries – just reading books. We drove home to Cincy, went to the opera, then out to our Indiana camp to visit friends before I took him home to W. Va. A really wonderful trip & vacation, except for its end. My Saturn broke a strut at our expressway exit in
Huntington, and that triggered a 5 day “Chevy Chase comedy” ending to our vacation. I could write a book! Details available if you want a good “Oh No?!!” laugh.
July and August belonged to me – the Rasor reunion & Brown family visits, the opera, and (oh yes!) board meetings for Phi Beta. When they again made me president, I warned that I wasn’t sure I could do it justice—better have a backup plan—and that necessity came true.
My cousin Fred Munier’s daughter Suzanne got married on Sun. Aug 31 in Las Vegas. I did not want to fly and my good friend, Annette Roth, said: “I’ve always wanted to go to Las Vegas.”—so we drove out. In Kansas a 19th cent. windmill, farm house and barn sat amid a breathtakingly ginormous & beautiful 21st cent windmill farm. We were in Denver the Sat before Democratic Convention observing swat teams training on the Capital Mall. Annette wore her Obama hat, and a delegate from Cincy parked next to our car at the motel.. The opera had closed for the season at Central City, but I got a peek at the auditorium & enjoyed the mining museum & art show across the street. Dozens of citizens of all ages crowded the roads north of Boulder jogging and riding bikes as we drove to Rocky Mtn Nat’l Park. It was spectacular, cold in August with heavy snow flurries at one point, and we saw a large bull moose grazing on bushes as we left the park. We drove south over high treacherous mountains in a driving rain as tor nados broke out south of Denver. I-70 over the Rockies took us to the red rock country of Utah: Colorado Nat’l Monument; the back road scenic route down the Colorado River Canyon to Moab; Arches Nat’l Park; Capital Reef; the Escalante; Bryce and Zion. Annette called this drive-by tourism, but you can no longer do that at Zion: no cars allowed up the canyon; must take a 1/2 day bus trip up there instead. So glad I got to see it several times years before on my own terms.
Labor Day weekend in Las Vegas we settled down in a condo off the strip for 6 days. Annette read books and toured the theme casinos while I went to a pool party, rehearsal dinner, the wedding and reception & a catered family breakfast the morning after wedding from Fri thru Mon. Got to visit with Fred and Robin personally on Tues and Wed. nights. Turns out the relentless schedule of the 10 days driving plus having to drive alone in Vegas and find all the strange venues by myself was extremely
stressful, not to mention my severe allergy to 2nd hand casino smoke–it all ‘did me in.’ In Williams, Ariz, I got a severe muscle spasm attack; an EKG at the clinic also revealed Atrial Fibrillation (AF), so they sent me to a cardiologist in Flagstaff. On his advice, we ‘ditched’ the Grand Canyon and, with only a brief pause at Painted Desert, headed straight home in 3 days.
It has taken over 2 months of much “couch time” and medication I will be on for the rest of my life to stabilize my condition. Leesa Alford, Annette, and Glenn Coven as well as others all watched out for me and took good care of my needs during that time. I am so blessed with dear dear friends. I’m feeling much better now – almost normal—but must avoid stress – HA! Hurricane Ike moved thru Cincy on Sun 9/14 and left the entire city looking like a war zone with no electricity for as long as 7 days! Mine was out from noon Sun til Wed eve, but that was OK. I already had to go to W. Va. for a Bill/doctor run Mon-Thurs anyway, so I got electricity and care from Bill as I helped him with doctors. Good Timing. Bill came to Cincy mid Oct to help me with physical things I could not do. He drove to Grayson Ky; Annette and I met him there to ‘drive him in’ so he would not get lost. At 1PM, while waiting to find Bill, my cell phone rang and it was my next door neighbor. There were 5 police cars out front and my house was filled with cops. My house had been burglarized at noon! They caught the kid, I got most of my stuff back, and he is in jail. Glenn commented: “At least your life is never dull!”
And Nov. certainly was not. Nov. 10-12 doctor visits with Bill revealed increased closure of the aortic valve. Sue flew into Cincy the 17th and we had a wonderful 3 day visit before I drove her to W. Va. Bill agreed to go to Fla for 2 or more months for doctor 2nd opinions, probable operations, and the needed daily home care Sue could give him. We packed up Bill’s car for a 2 mo. stay and they left for Fla on Mon. spending Thanksgiving in West Palm, then back to HiSprings. Sun Bill was throwing temper tantrums, demanding to go home, and on Monday – he and the car disappeared with no clue where he was going!
Dec 1st was an awful day! Sunday at 11pm my toy poodle Cookie was writhing on the floor with a horribly distended stomach. A midnight run to all nite Vet Hospital revealed twisted stomach, painful death in 4-6 hours, so I mercifully put her down. Then at noon, Sue called to say Bill had disappeared; she filed a Missing Persons report and I tried tracking his credit card purchases. We finally found him 8:30 that nite at a motel south of Atlanta. Sue and Daniel drove up 9:30P-2:30AM to get him. Skipping the gory details, Sue ended up driving him back home to Hamlin, then had to get a plane back home. Also on 12/1, Glenn had a black ice car wreck, and mother of a friend was found dead in her bed. Autopsy revealed cause of death – Aortic Stenosis – 80% blockage; right where Bill is now. Not a good day. And we have no idea what to do about Bill. Guess you will have to tune in next Christmas for the end to this cliff hanger.
Amid all this, Cin. Symphony Orch. concerts have been a soothing blessing during the year. And now I only have one dog – Coco, since I had to have Brandy put down in April. Coco goes with me every where (except Fla and West trip). She loves to run the hills in Hamlin; scares me to death when she is gone 40 minutes, but she always comes home panting like crazy as she happily collapses on the floor.
And so I end this epistle as our first true snowfall and 15 degree weather truly usher in the spirit of the Christmas Season. May that spirit be yours and carry on throughout the coming New Year.