Celebration of Life On Saturday, September 10, 2022, friends and family gathered in person and spirit to commemorate and celebrate the life of my father, David Lovejoy. We enjoyed good food and libations in his honor, shared stories, laughed and cried, and generally carried on the dinner party tradition he and my mom spent a lifetime enjoying. Friends and Family Gather to Celebrate the Life of David Lovejoy Brett (David’s son) with wife Janice My kids (some of David’s grand kids) – Cali (age 13), Reef (age 16), Faith (age 9), and Summer (age 9) Krissy (one of David’s daughters) shares a sto ..read more

Everywhere I go I am reminded of how lucky we are. Summer and Faith Under the golden fall light boisterous third graders swarm in and out of the dusty bug barn, shrieking at the sight of cockroaches.  It is fall and we are on a county fair field trip with my nine-year-old daughter’s class.  I am maneuvering Cali in her wheelchair through the bubbling crowd because she still fatigues easily.  Her classmates don’t gawk or even ask questions.  They know Cali, they know our story.  Tarantulas and maggots are much more exciting. Over the heads of the buzzing children, I see ..read more

You can mark time by the cycles of the moon, the arc of the sun, or the squares on a calendar.  And sometimes you can mark time by the phases of hospital construction projects.  After five years of dust and noise and spores, the new wing of the Lucile Packard Hospital is finally complete. Before my son was born, I had basically never been in a hospital, save the childhood ER trip when my sister broke her leg skiing.  In fact, I had rarely even seen a doctors. My wise mom, a seasoned pediatric nurse, knew doctors’ offices were germ breeding grounds and kept us kids away from thos ..read more

The longest night, the shortest day.  And that is the point, isn’t it?  To find the light even in the darkness. Do you find light in the LED strings lacing suburban rooflines, defying the four o’clock dusk?  Do you find light in the holiday tunes declaring messages of joy and peace, echoing through dinky drugstores and crowded malls?  Do you find light in a backyard fire, drawing friends and strangers alike by its warmth?  Do you find light in the birth a baby, who knows nothing except he is surrounded by loving arms?  Do you find light the sparkle of your child’s ..read more

Dearest Friends and Family, Watch out!  The Bennett Family is back in action and ready to celebrate Christmas and its associated holidays in their full glory!  We hope this letter finds you reasonably well and confronted with only the routine kind of mishaps, like backaches and flat tires. Sometimes November arrives, and I realize, here comes the holiday season barreling down the tracks, and there is nothing I can do about it.  Some years I have secretly wished I could pull a blanket over my head and hibernate until January, but of course, I can’t. Summer and Faith enjoy the San ..read more

Halloween! Mostly we are out of the hospital world.  Mostly, we wake up in our own house and have breakfast with our own family.  Mostly, Cali goes to Miss Meggie’s second grade classroom at Bay View School and eats lunch with her classmates.  Like everyone else, she rushes to beat the crowds on Friday Popcorn Day. True, some things are different.  Cali and I still have an arsenal of medications to ingest at least twice daily.  But in our household, taking meds has become as common place as brushing teeth. “Did you remember your pills, Mom?”  my four-year-olds chi ..read more

Getting to the remote middle section of Big Sur coastline, affectionately called The Southlands by locals, has always been difficult. Most visitors traveling south along this famous stretch of Highway 1 don’t make it past the legendary Nepenthe restaurant (right) or the trailhead to famous McWay Falls. It takes perseverance to continue the extra twenty miles along the winding highway, cut precariously into vertical cliffs, to reach the sleepy hamlets of Lucia or Gorda, where red-tailed hawks outnumber residents about ten to one and the land is far louder than the people. Me walking my bike ove ..read more

My son (far left) “graduates” from fifth grade! Yeah, Cali still has the ng-tube running from her stomach out her nose, taped to her cheek, and hanging like a fishing line down her back. And yeah, Cali still gets chemo every ten days. And yeah, there are raging readjustment arguments between the males and females of our family constellation. But in between, Cali is visiting Bay View School, attending homeschool enrichment classes, signing up for summer theater camp, and taking a Hula class. All is tending towards hunky-dory normal kid life. A mom can be fooled into thinking she is charge of he ..read more

Cali enjoys are hot tub at home! Not too many services are offered on a “walk-in” basis anymore. A worthwhile haircut requires an appointment. A decent Friday or Saturday night restaurant meal requires a reservation. And God forbid you should walk your feverish toddler into her pediatrician’s office. The receptionist will promptly send you to an urgent care clinic. (Why would a primary care provider want to see our kids when they are actually sick?) Even a dog can’t get a basic shampoo at Pet Smart without about a week’s notice. But, I have announcement. Attention please! Thank goodness ..read more

Cali dyes Easter eggs in the hospital.   Last week I was crying because I didn’t have a leukemia relapse.  Wait – that doesn’t sound right.  I’m really glad I didn’t have a relapse. Last week I was crying because I couldn’t feel the difference between having a relapse and regular life. “That lump on your neck is a swollen lymph node from the sinus infection you had a few weeks ago,” my BMT doctor reassured me.  “I am almost 100% sure.  It looks like an infection.  You blood counts are great, aside from showing slightly elevated lymphocytes, whi ..read more