Love Letter

 Rather personal, but Jimmy's to Rosalynn reminded me.

Myocardial Infarction ---Edited 1/2/2024

 Remove the contents of your chest. Insert into that area an adult sized shoebox. Completely fill that shoebox with unremitting pain. There you have it.*

If the cardiologist on call at the Emergency Department is successful in persuading a cardiac surgeon trained as an Interventional Radiologist to don his Patagonia fleece vest on a Saturday morning and report to the ER to perform a PCI,Percutaneous Coronary Intervention** death or even lack of heart damage may be avoided. 

 * STEMI--ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction

**PCI---formerly known as Angioplasty with Stent. 

Willie Nelson

    Willie just performed on the Stephen Colbert show. It seems likely it may be one of his last, if not his last, performances.   His guitar playing was as usual, but he seemed to have little breath left. He stayed seated and  mostly talked his way through "I Never Cared For You.'  Sad.

October 1983

    My mother never lived alone. At the end she lived with her sister, and next door to her son and family. I was at her house almost every day, and so were many of the grandkids. On this last ordinary visit to her house on Friday, the weather was nice and she and Helen were in the garden, at the bottom end, near where the old rabbit cage was. When I got to where they were,  my mother told me she wasn't feeling that good. That was unusual for her so I said we should go to the hospital. She reminded me that she had her regularly scheduled visit with her doctor in Mechanicville the next Tuesday, just a few days away. I said, thinking it was a joke, that  we wanted to make sure she was around on Tuesday. She had been hospitalized with a heart attack in 1978, so that was always on our minds. 

   She agreed to  go and we called her doctor to advise him . But he said to bring her over to the office first to check her out. When we got to the Mechanicville office, her doctor was not there; she was to be seen by his son. My mother was disappointed because she had a good relatiobnship with the father, but she would not have said anything about it. 

     The young doctor listened to her symptoms, of most concern to her a pain in her side near the back. He attributed it to her kidney. At one time they had told her she had a third kidney. I don't know how they diagnosed that as I don't think she ever had any type of scan, which was probably not an option at the time. So he reassured her that there was no need to go to the hospital. Good news. But I remember what she said as we were about to leave his office, again unusual for her. He had told her the trouble was that "extra kidney." She turned back to him and asked, "Are you sure it's the kidney, Doctor?"  His response, meant to be comforting, was, and I vividly recall his words, "Yes, That's exactly what it is." 

   On the way home, as we neared the railroad crossing, I remember her saying that it would be an odd sight  when the snow fell on the trees, which  still had their green leaves. We didn't think she would not be around to see that happen. And I have no memory if it did or not.

   We went home that Friday afternoon, and got through Saturday. She died Sunday morning. 

Somebody better protect my real estate...

 ...from the infringement of what I'm sure are well-intentioned but grotesque memorial tributes. As the pictures, and cemetery deed measurements show, each lot is flush with the neighboring lot where the headstone is installed. So I demand my allotment of footroom. 

Our allotment for 3 graves initially was marked with 4 cornerstones. Only one remains, as the others were buried when adjoining graves were closed, with no inches to spare. Space is at a premium in cemeteries. 

Can't explain, but sad...

 

Cemetery

 Today the flowers are still in bloom: