Summer time, especially today with overcast skies, merits a trip into family nostalgia. Look what I found on an old external hard drive: A delightful sibling memory! From the file: Lois Roelofs/Stories//10-25-2001             You have to meet my sister Rose. She can change your life if you’re not careful. Recently, I made a major career decision based on something she said. And I wasn’t even aware of it at the time.             As the second oldest of my three sisters, Rose is 66 years ..read more

My long-time nursing friend, Marianna Crane, deals with the uncertainty of aging like most of us in our 80s. I’m reblogging her blog post because we can learn from her experience and learn about a benign brain tumor most of us have never heard of, but, if present, greatly hangs over one’s life. Traveling with a Brain Tumor: Beach Trip vs a River Cruise on the Rhine Last week we drove to Wrightsville Beach, a consolation beach trip instead of going on a European River Cruise. Ernie wasn’t comfortable traveling overseas with a brain tumor. A two hour drive to the beach seemed more doable t ..read more

It’s been a few weeks since the April A to Z challenge, and I’d like to say that I’ve been reclining on a chaise lounge, reading inspirational romance novels, and sipping chamomile tea served with clotted cream on homemade scones. But I’d be lying. Instead, I apparently betrayed my body that was trying to tell me to do the above, but my brain has an unbreakable habit of not listening to the fibromyalgia flares I’ve had off and on for 25 years. But I’m up and running, actually moseying, around again, and this is what I have to say today. Listen to your body. It is smarter than you and me. Espec ..read more

Zonk–to fall soundly asleep or relax completely. The last day of the Blogging from A to Z in April challenge. Ready to zonk out accurately describes my life at 82 at this time! I always want to finish something I’ve started, but completing A to Z has been a challenge. Each blog post takes one to three hours a day depending on what WordPress challenges I encounter along the way. I look forward to having those hours back as discretionary time! However, it’s been fun to meet old friends and new that have stopped by my blog this past month. I hope I’ve given you a flavor of what a day-to-day life ..read more

Yesterday, I woke up to torrents of rain. I’d already been wondering what to write about for the letter Y, and as I watched the rain, the song You Are My Sunshine came to mind. Not a warm and cozy weekend welcome! It took me awhile to find a rendition on YouTube that I liked, but here is one by Christina Perri . Her voice was sweet and tender, but also wistful. It brought me back to yesteryear. Especially to the sunny times with my late husband, and then to the sadness of waking up to find he’s no longer here. Driving to church, I thought to look for other examples of YOU that hit home. I open ..read more

Participating in Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge Yes, here I am so close to the end of the alphabet, and I’m cheating. I’m capitalizing on the fact that the E is silent in the word I’ve chosen to represent X. I had another fine X word picked out, but on the way to unplugging my computer in my study to work on it while in my LR chair, I was supposed to find my glasses. Or correctly, the three pairs I wasn’t wearing, because at any nutso time my eyes decide they want another pair. But I got distracted. I first must explain that this inconvenience of my glasses, or I suppose it’s my eyes ..read more

Participating in the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge Due to my hyper chai reaction resulting in lots of lost sleep, followed by the inevitable somnolent crash, I and my body were out of WHACK yesterday. One definition is: If something is out of whack, it is not working properly, often because its natural balance has been upset. That fit my situation. My body does not like a rampant deviation in night/day schedule. It rebels! Looking up a definition of my kind of “out of whack” led me to several funny synonyms: beat up, glitched, imperfect, in need of repair, in poor condition, in smith ..read more

I took an unexpected vacation the past few days. As I lay konked out on my couch or in bed, I had to analyze what was going on. It took me several days to figure out the sudden overwhelming fatigue. I’d been to Urgent Care because I woke up to a voluminous (another V word!) left calf compared with my right. I was certain I had a blood clot. I’d been on planes a lot lately, so even though I calf pump religiously when I fly, I was sure I had sprouted a clot. A problem was there was no redness or warmth on the left calf, the usual major signs. It was just large. But as I read up about calves and ..read more

Thank you, WP, for the U word today! Early on, she posted the following comment on my theme of Life at 82. I replied I may use it. What she writes is very true for me. If you are older, I’m sure you will identify too. I’m in my 77th year. Is that close enough to be included in the “around 82” category? My focus is clearing the decks so I am unencumbered by whatever comes next. If I suddenly am unable to go on much farther, I don’t want to be caught up trying to put things in order at the last minute. It is important to me that when I leave, I don’t leave a mess. So often in life, other people ..read more

Participating in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Early on when I started this blog (2010), I often wrote about the importance of telling your story. I said if you don’t, your words will die with you. I still feel that way, only more so. Since I retired from teaching nursing in 2000, I’ve met many writers in various workshops. Some were writing fiction, but most were writing memoir. As we work shopped each participant’s story in class, I heard life stories of all kinds and saw many smiles, as well as tears. I’ve seen how cathartic writing has been. And then found out for myself as I to ..read more