Let's finish what I started, shall I?
I am living halcyon days...
A continuing litany of those to whom I am grateful
My sisters
Nancy - with her own busy family schedule - kept me in her loop of prayer and conversation and I know she loves me, just as I love her.
Thanks for sustaining me to my baby sister Linda.
Linda - who "gets me" like no one else in the world, with a smaller family was able to be more active. She and David, my brother-in-law, and my favorite youngest nephew Malcolm came to see me shortly after my first chemo cocktail infusion. They were absolutely not going to stay here but at a nearby hotel because it would just have been too much for me so soon after the mastectomy and chemo. Okay, let's face it - there is nothing "nearby" my house. It's 3 miles down the road to the nearest business which is a gas station. That is also the nearest traffic light. They needed to know I was okay and I actually needed to have them stay here. There is room and I convinced Linda - stay for one night here and if it really is too much for me then you could go to a hotel. Hee hee, there was no way I was going to let them go to a hotel. I showed her my site. I needed to show someone who loves me and who herself had been through a surgery that made her feel helpless. Yes, hers was a hip replacement but you catch my drift. She encouraged me when she saw it and helped me start to move away from seeing it as only "the technicolor, three dimensional topographic map of a nightmare railroad crash scene from a horror movie" that I saw it to be.
Later during my recovery period she saved my life every day. Oh, not in the sense that I was physically dieing, but I did have a time where I was sinking and so very much in need of her buoying me up. We would chat every single evening. She told me one night "You know what you need? You need a bed time story." "I do???" "Yes," she said, "you do." She proceeded to start reading me Junie B, First Grader. We laughed our behinds off. Grr, blabberlips, I love you.
If you have never read any books in this series - which, by the way, I later bought the complete set - Junie B is a most horribly behaved little girl that is in sore need of some correction. However, as a character in a book you can just laugh at. My brother-in-law walked in on Linda on the phone one evening, saw her with the book and asked "You aren't reading that to Melanie, are you?" "Yes, I am." "Oh." He left the room and we both giggled.
No one "gets me" the way Linda does. No one. She claims I am an easy audience but she makes me laugh SO HARD! We will be visiting and giggling and suddenly Linda and I realize that David has separated us. This is most likely for the best and it amuses us greatly.
One visit we had all gone up to their lake house in Lake Guntersville, AL. Linda and I were walking from our car up to the store - "the Pig" as she likes to call it. A red pickup truck drove past and Linda smiled and waved most energetically at the driver, who waved back with that "oh man, who is that again?" look on her face. Linda commented to me "She has no idea who I am. That's because I don't know her." I am sitting here typing this and laughing so hard my sides ache just remembering that. "Don't you do that?" she asks. No, can't say as I do.
Hey, we enjoyed it!
My sweet nephew Jamie. This child was 101st Airborne, 1BCT, 2nd Btln, Delta Demons (well, they can't all be Bravo Bayonets) and was stationed in Afghanistan. His unit was under great duress. They lost several brothers in arms. As a former blue star mom, I know what his mom was going through and I know the fear I felt for him and his comrades. Your heart bleeds with worry and compassion and fear for them, indeed for all our military heroes. Never having been in theater I cannot feel THAT, but oh how I feel the care of it from a mom's heart. This child IN AFGHANISTAN - IN WAR - IN HELL was worried about his aunt Melanie. How sweet a heart is that? How caring and loving a spirit is that?
He came to visit me with his then fiancee, now wife Megan because he wanted to be sure I was doing okay. He is in my heart and my prayers every day, my "Jim-Bob" - every day.
My uncle Dave and aunt Jo, and my Louisiana cousins - During my treatment, uncle & aunt wanted to be in my heart and sent me a check to get SOMETHING that would cheer me, would remind me that they love me and were praying for me. Now I love a good wind chime. Did I mention I LOVE a good wind chime? Poor hubby patiently and with a bit of a grin on his face tolerates with humor my constant quest for GOOD wind chimes. I cannot pass a display of them without testing... So I bought a wonderful wind chime that hangs on my back porch and which, of course from the wind, and from every time I chime it resonates with this wonderful, sweet sound lingering in the air like a prayer wending its way heavenward. I LOVE IT!!!!!! I have one from Linda, one from uncle Dave & aunt Jo, and one from Rebecca and they are all different tones but each of them lingers in the air like the sweet aroma of a fragrant flower.
When I had progressed to being up to making a small trip I was made welcome in Abita Springs for a visit with Dave & Jo in all my then hairless glory. My cousins also were welcoming and kind and I didn't feel like I was being stared at for being this strangely bald weirdo, you know? Well, you don't really know, but just go with it. I was surrounded by loving support and kindness.
My dear friends Isolde and Nino. How many times Isolde would cook for me and just love me. Nino was among the first outside of my immediate family with whom I felt comfortable removing my hat. He looked at me and said in his charming Italian accent, "Oh, that is so cute! You look just so cute!"
There were others who helped love me through this trial. Because it was a trial. It was a walking through fire - and I have come out the other side with scars that are not so very bad! With God's grace and loving mercy I have been strengthened and blessed and I hope I am his instrument DAILY of beauty and grace. I will stop here with this entry of gratitude. I just hope that every one who is NOT mentioned understands that I do value and cherish each kind thought, each prayer, every meal, every inquiry after my well being. If I don't stop now, I could go on and on for many many more PAGES!!
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