Guatemala parasites!

Dear Mom,

Oh boy, I have a doozy of a story to tell you!

Karen and Ron and I went to Guatemala on the big trip I told you about for the alternative therapies, based on everything we were told by Melissa about kinesiology and other energy practices. Just before we left Melissa cancelled on going with us, so the three of us ventured out alone and took our chances.

All in all we handled things well, but when I came back I had brough an additional little visitor with me, a parasite or some sort of little stomach/intestinal bug.

In a move I thought was quite inspired, I spoke to an herbalist where I got ‘the bug’ and she gave me some treatments to try but my stomach was still feeling kind of icky after several days, and I made it back in the states. So, of course I wanted to call you and pretty much already knew that you would say get to a ‘real doctor and get some real medicine, don’t mess around with parasites!’ but I went ahead and called Vida and Izzy to see what they said. They were both very helpful and of course have stepped in as “Moms” to get me to do the right thing. They said make sure that if I don’t feel better in another day, to go see a doctor and I got some names.

Amazingly, the herbal remedies worked, but I want you to know that your nursing friends are watching out for me (and Dad) down here on earth. I thought that would make you feel better to know about me getting rid of the stomach bug and surviving a third world country adventure -  and your wonderful friends becoming my friends too!

As always, I miss you and love you!

Mary

p.s. In case someone is looking for help here, The herbs involved in the healing are: quassia, chaparro-amargo, jacaranda, black walnut, reem and wormwood. The cleansing diet involves beans, brown rice, garlic, onions, carrots and zuchinni, only with butter and olive oil and no major spices. No alcohol, no fruit, no chocolate, basically nothing good and nothing acidic! Write me if you want more info.

 

Mom’s Memorial Service at CSU

Last Thursday, many of my Mom’s family had the chance to join Dad & I at Cleveland State for a beautiful service they presented in memory of Mom and her many professional and personal accomplishments.

While I was nervous about what I was going to say, I was happy to find that I was one of many speakers, including some of Mom’s closest friends and colleagues and we were surrounded by wonderful people wanting to celebrate my Mom.

Sheila had lovely stories to tell about my Mom’s fascination with collecting figurines of old people and sharing them with her, Dorothy shared her gratitude for Mom and her adherence to the Florence Nightingale creed of nurses, Jane shared her love of traveling with Mom, shopping together and sharing stories about the two Davids (her husband and my Dad). It was also great to hear Dad ask some funny questions of the gathered group of nurses and to also tell the story of meeting Mom and marrying her in just a few short weeks, and finding out when acquiring the marriage license that they were both Scorpios, which later meant that the way to work together was to make all decisions as a team, otherwise their two strong personalities could never work in tandem. Lisa read a beautiful psalm she felt related to Mom and the description of the Mom’s voice of reason but always being a Wild Card at a meeting. All the other speakers brought out something special that kindly and sweetly memorialized Dr. Cheryl, a nurse of 45 years and a friend to many in the room for 20 plus years!

I chose to go another route, because of course, Dr. Cheryl to me is Mom. While I can’t even begin to say how much I miss her, I thought I would discuss the revitalized Cleveland and how I thought Mom might appreciate the work being done downtown.

You can see the letter in my Letters to Mom section of the Web site posted Monday. This is what I said to introduce the letter. As always, Dad and I (and my brother Kris and the rest of our family) thank everyone for their support and especially Vida in hosting the memorial service. We appreciate all of your beautiful words, sentiments, stories and love for our family.

Memorial Service: 10/23/08 3:00 p.m.

 

It was just a year ago I was here in this very place telling you tales with Mom sitting at the table beside me, celebrating her retirement.

 

As you’ve heard tonight and know from your experiences with her, Mom loved CSU and really had no desire to retire – and she certainly wasn’t ready to stop living her life.

 

But some choices are beyond our control and I always believe that there is a silver lining within even the worst horrible gray cloud. That has to be my chance to meet all of you, all of her wonderful friends and colleagues and to meet all the people who helped our family and surrounded us with love when Mom’s days were numbered.

 

While I think I was mostly in a daze the week after we lost Mom, I do remember several things that people told me about her during visitation and services at our church. The two that I share today stuck with me the most. First I was told: Your Mom always had time to help, no matter how small or large the problem. I knew I could count on her to be there. Second, someone told me thank you for sharing your Mom with us. I was so stuck by this. She loved this place! I should thank you all you for sharing her with us!

 

My Mom gave and gave and over the last two years even when she became increasingly ill and I hope I was able to give back just a fraction of what she gave to me, to you and to our family and friends away from CSU. I hope I will be able to take her caring and kind legacy in my life.

 

Since May, I’ve written a blog to keep people informed about Mom. As a journalist and public relations professional, this gave me the chance to inform and hopefully entertain along the way. Humor kept me going thru the hard times and I hope it will keep me going for the rest of my life.

 

Since I no longer can call her and tell her all the things going on, I’ve started a new segment called Letters to Mom – look for it in book stores someday about dealing with grief!

 

I want to share a new letter that I’m writing to Mom that I think will have special meaning to all of you gathered here to day as we’ve seen the changes in Cleveland over the last few months.

 

Mom, You won’t believe it: RTA’s HealthLine is RUNNING!

Note: I shared this letter with everyone at Mom’s Memorial Service at CSU on Thursday, October 23, 2008

 Dear Mom,

 It’s a miracle! I know you are not going to believe it, but the RTA new HealthLine system is opening up this weekend! I know, it’s a shock that it is finally here and running, but it is true. I hadn’t seen the changes on the far east end of Euclid, but when I came back to work after Labor Day, there were no more construction barrels, loud noises or anything going on at Euclid by Public Square and East Fourth Street, where my colleagues and I walk to for lunch. In fact, all that I saw were nice, clean streets, sidewalks and the new bus terminals.

 

While CSU’s area of Euclid was done, we were waiting for the rest of it to be finished and on Saturday it officially opened. I know you’d be proud of Cleveland for making it easier for students to get to CSU from wherever they are with the expanded bus system and the more direct routes. It means the next time I come from work on Public Square to CSU, I hop on a healthline bus, go 20 blocks, and hop off. Much easier, and hopefully a way to see CSU – along with all the other businesses thrive.

 

It really didn’t seem real to me until last week when I walked to meet Dad at the Palace at Playhouse Square. We went to see the Chorus Line, which was good, but you totally would have fallen asleep during since there were some slow moments. But I digress… I know you would have been pleased to see the construction end and perhaps help the downtown areas revitalize by welcoming some more restaurants and stores to the areas that are now empty.

 

It is ironic – and maybe even more sad – that by the time I came home to Cleveland and worked downtown, just a few blocks away from your office, we never had a chance – or an easy way – to visit with each other.

 

If you were still at CSU, I would now just hop on the new double-long HealthLine (which looks pretty cool by the way) and surprise you for lunch.  But, let’s face it, even if you were here, you would smile and be happy to see me, but then not have time to eat because you’d be faced with solving all the issues of the semester in the nursing department.

But, I don’t want you to worry. Your work here on earth is done. Those who are left here have you covered.

Take the rest you deserve, keep an eye on us from above and know that as always, I love and miss you, as do so many others whose lives you touched in your 45 years of nursing – and mostly of caring.

 

Love,

Mary

 

The Power of the Tissue

Dear Mom,

I’ve learned so many things from you over the years about being prepared for all sorts of events occuring while out in the world: whether it be bringing a light sweater with me to all places in the summer in case the air conditioning is too cold, or knowing to bring business cards to an event at your work where there might be someone who could become a client, or making sure to pack all the right things in the cooler while heading out for a weekend at the lake. But none of those lessons are more valuable than your constant belief in the power of the tissue – and how every single pocket of every single outfit you’ve ever owned is stuffed with kleenex. Kris and I used to laugh at this until we needed a tissue when we had a cold or in a moment of sadness when we might need to use it to blot a tear. But, we still couldn’t help ourselves by making fun of this habit of yours and always asking if the tissue was clean, to which we always received the same answer: Of course it is! This usually was accompanied by your famous ‘look’ that says much more than words could ever express. How dare we even ask if it was a snotty dirty tissue. Rude!

However, the reason I’m writing you today is not to discuss the cleanliness of your tissues, your love for stocking up on kleenex and your preference of them over Puffs or any other brand of the special ‘facial tissue,’ I bring it up today because I had the need for a tissue and what I’ve learned from your habits over the years saved me.

It happened at Cedar Point this weekend. Yes, I went on a whole bunch of rollercoasters, tried to relive my childhood and just had a grand old time of having the crap scared out of me on these super-fast rides. Yet, I digress.

There was a group of six that met there – James, Adam, Jen and I from here and Gina and Julie from Detroit. We arrived to pouring rain but after the journey to get to ‘the Point’ there was no turning back and we piled on our raincoats and put up our hoods and went directly to the nearest bathroom. Since this was when the park opened at noon, we were lucky to discover toilet paper. The rain stopped after a while and we didn’t need to do too much stopping to dry off, but I did start stockpiling paper just in case. Later in the day, on  visit 8 to the bathroom as it was 10pm at night ,  it was going to be a struggle to find a stall that looked even slightly clean and more importantly had a healthy supply (or any) toilet paper.

I thought to myself about the option of ‘dripping dry’ as I am no good in waiting in lines for the bathroom, even though I easily waited in line for the Magnum for one hour! Ironic, yes? Important to the story, no.

But alas, during one of our many meals during the day in the park, I had stocked up on tissues and napkins (really the same – both bad quality and thin) and didn’t have to wait or choose a dripping option. Mom to the rescue, in the form of my thoroughly stocked bag of tissues. On a side note, James at one point made fun of me saying I had a funny looking bag, but on yet another thing I learned from you, pack what you need and leave space on an adventure like Cedar Point, and be comfortable in what you are carrying. Plus, my bag is from Red River and my trip with Lairy and Carol last July 4th (2007) and that always holds happy memories for me so I’m using it whenever I can!

Again, I digress.

But tissues didn’t just make their appearance recently in my bag at Cedar Point. Unfortunately, in going through your clothes, trying to give them away to friends and family who need them and trying to figure out what you would want me to do with all of your beautiful objects, while trying not to cry because of how much I miss you, I have come across a mountain of Kleenex. Really, I should be getting some sort of award from them for the family that had the most ‘pockets full of Kleenex, ever’ in one home. Pocket by pocket I’ve gone through and made a pile of tissues and know that you loved always being prepared for whenever the need for one of those babies became apparent.

I’ve gone through a box during your two visitations and your services in Cleveland and even more while in Gibsonburg, where we said goodbye to you yet again in a service in the church where you grew up. I even noticed that even though we all knew we needed the tissues, I somehow was the only one who remembered to bring the little pocket packs, that went to Wendy and Anna immediately, along with being shared among the rest of the family. I know you don’t want us to be sad and cry for you, but I can tell you this: Too bad. At that time and now we miss you and we will always miss you. There is going to be crying, and, thanks to what I’ve found in your pockets over the last to months, I’m stocked up on tissue!

I love you,

Mary