NOT DONE!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS SEASON’S GREETINGS
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!!
(NOTE: I got “felled” by a wicked infection the week before Xmas. Sick thru Xmas into the next
week until Jan 7. Felt too lousy to even do cards and notes. I just do what I can, when I can, but at
least the ‘thought is here’ sincerely.)
I have just read my Xmas 2016 letter. Except for the moving details, I could almost just reprint that same letter describing the activities. atmosphere and people here at Twin Towers. This community is
a wonderful place—exactly where I need to be, especially in light of some of the health challenges I have faced this past year. So just go back and re-read last year’s letter(if you didn’t pitch it); then ‘plug in’ the latest update details and stories for this past year written below.
I enjoyed the wonderful friendship and companionship at dinner with Jim Fethe & Clyde Bowden
for 14 months, then they had to move from independent living up to Assisted Living (with their own dining). Jim had cancer and left this earth Nov. 12. Such a loss of a wonderful person, but that is the
“natural order” of life around here as I make friendships, and then they are gone. Also lost this year was
Faye Sink Hunt, who married my father in 1972, 10 months after my mother’s passing. She was his
companion and caretaker for 19 years, until he died in Aug. 1991 at age 99. She then went on to live an
active life, passing in March at age 104!!!
My dear Coco also died in April from an attack of severe respiratory distress at age 13 (very old for English Bulldogs). It was a very traumatic 2 hours from onset at the dog groomers to final peace at home.
I made frantic phone calls as Coco turned purple gasping for air The vet suggested blowing a hair dryer into her mouth which helped her to take deep breaths and finally turn pink but she was still in terrible agony. Willa paced the floor, stopping to nuzzle Coco and even lick her face. Twin Towers Safety
came to help me and “Angels Paws”, a special home vet service, arrived to put Coco out of her misery.
Willa lay her head against Coco’s body as we lovingly said our goodbyes and put her to sleep. Willa followed (without leash) closely, as they carried Coco out on a stretcher to the open car hatchback.
As we walked away from the car, Willa put her front paws up on the bumper and thrust her face deep
into the car. Then she backed off , circled and repeated that behavior 3 times! Losing Coco was bad enough, but watching Willa’s bereavement behavior really tore me up inside. Willa grieved for 6 months before she returned to her normal self.
I am fighting to stay physically and mentally strong and alert. Since January, I have been in hospital 3 times, 2 trips to emergency room; + 911 call; lost count of MRI’s and CAT scans; not to mention Dr. visits and tests— especially cardiology and neuropathy. The 911 call was for extreme vertigo, but I have since come to believe that was when I got the ischemic stroke that now shows up on MRI. I had Pacemaker operation on July 10. They spent 30-45 minutes trying to push a probe thru my tiny veins to no avail & just closed me up. Had to do the whole dog and pony show all over again on Aug 7 with special vein fluids for expansion to successfully get the pacemaker implanted. Spinal stenosis seems to be causing the numbness that was in my feet and is creeping up my legs, now to my knees (neuropathy), making walking more and more difficult. Finally, that ischemic stroke blocked out a big
‘hole in my brain’ in addition to normal age deterioration. Annette usually drives me to the Dr., but she
was out of town when I visited the neurologist. He said, looking at MRI only, he would expect me to be
at least in Assisted Living, if not skilled nursing or more, and was shocked to learn I drove my self there. Said my ability to cope and compensate around my loss was absolutely awesome and phenomenal. I take 3 times as long to do anything; find it harder to express my thoughts both in finding the right words and right sentence structure. While the world speaks in cryptic tweets, my mind fights to express a more wordy mixture of erudite & simple words and sentence structure. Like I used to do with Bill, Annette helps me express & understand complex concepts with Dr., business, and other stuff. (So if you get this letter late after Xmas, now you know why!) And so I have spent the year truly “aging” from which I will
not ‘get better’ but have a baseline going forward. I deeply appreciate all your inquiries and wishes for
my good health and will give you twitter-length updates henceforth.
Yes, I am still driving, tho never at night. I got my driver’s license renewed and bought my little
red Ford when it’s lease ended in July. My driving days are numbered and I will give up the keys when
I am no longer safe behind the wheel. I now have 2 Council on Aging (COA) aides, 2 hrs. each, every week. My new (in Oct.) Independent Living Asst. (ILA) is really great. Melissa just takes over helping me keep all my accounts, business, etc. straight; observing and addressing my needs. She is now working with COA to get me a more skilled and competent home aide. Cynthia is always reliable & works hard, but “can’t remember” so I have to constantly correct work errors, even after she has been here over a year.
And now to a happy event this fall!
Xavier University has a class: “Psychology of Aging”. Students are paired with a ‘senior’ to mentor
for the semester. I signed up and happily was accepted. Hannah, my student, spent at least 30 or more hours working with me on her project. I got to learn more about college kids today as she learned about life in the past thru the story of my life experiences from the 1930’s depression to today. We settled on
writing about my early childhood (age 0-12) comparing depression times to today – a stark contrast in
driving, parenting, farming and technology. She compiled a memoir book with pictures from my photo
album. Used her smart phone to take pictures of my photos, transferred them with text to her wireless computer and put it all together in a format while sitting right beside me in my living room as we talked.
Wow! What a contrast to the ’30’s and to my hours in the library in the 50’s researching with books and index cards, and a Royal portable typewriter! I got to edit the text and teach her the skill of sentence composing to help her writing skills. It felt good & rejuvenating to recall and exercise my teaching skills again. What a wonderful, cool, uplifting experience.
I still drive to Drama Workshop shows (5) on Sun. afternoon & Playhouse shows (10) on Wed. afternoons. Annette drives Liz Ragouzis and me to Symphony, lets us out at the door where I am picked
up in a transport chair to go to our seats while Annette parks the car. The newly renovated Music Hall is
praised by all and has larger, more comfortable seats, but lost 1,000 seats (from 3200) in the bargain. You can read all about it by looking up Cincinnati Symphony on the internet and following the links. The enclosed picture, thru its caption, tells its own unique story of our friendship thru choir and love of music.
The picture is separate cause I have lost the skills to put it on this letter. It is such a joy to hear from you.
I wish you peace, hope and happiness in the coming year.
CHRISTMAS IN JULY-2018: It is now July 1st, but in March 18 I wrote the following groupEmail to all who had gotten, and those of you who had not yet gotten Christmas cards.