Monthly Archives: October 2008

Apparently P. Diddy (a “gangsta” rapper) has come out condemning Sarah Palin and glorifying Obama.  Okay, that’s no surprise.  But here’s a video of a young black man, rebutting everything P. Diddy had to say.  I wish ALL Americans would think for themselves, like this man.  How difficult can it be to check someone’s voting record and funding sources, and realize that Obama is a Socialist at best, a Communist at worst?  Why doesn’t it matter to people that he continually quotes Karl Marx? Anyway, I could go on forever.  This video sums it up so well.

I just found out that my friend, Bonnie, went home to Heaven at 4:45 this morning.  Her family was with her, and her daughter, Laura, tells me it was very gentle and peaceful.

I spent the night with Bonnie in the hospital on Monday night.  It was a long night.  She had several seizures, and was unable to really tell me what she needed or wanted.  She was so restless, and my biggest task was probably keeping her untangled from her IV cord, catheter and bed sheets.  As I sat there in the deep hours of the night, watching over her and praying for her, I was struck by her youthfulness.  Her face was soft, like that of a young girl.  And her legs and feet looked like they belonged to a healthy young teen, not a woman dying from cancer.  It was all so surreal and incongruous.

Bonnie was so young!  Her birthday was earlier this month, and I know she was only a year or two older than me, so that would mean she turned 43 or 44.  She has four children.  I delivered her youngest child, Sarah, at home just twelve short years ago.  It seemed so strange to me, that the last night I’d spent with Bonnie was during her labor and birth, helping to bring life into this world.  And now I was once again spending the night with her, this time as she reached the end of her own life.

Bonnie is not the first friend I’ve had to die young.  Before I turned twenty years old, three of my friends took their own lives.  Two were killed in car wrecks. Yet another was a casualty of a gang fight.  It wasn’t his fight, but he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  But it doesn’t really matter.  The end result is the same.  And the rest of us are left here on earth to make sense of it, somehow.

I don’t understand why Bonnie had to die so young.  I don’t understand how someone who had never smoked, drank, or eaten junk food could have cancer.  She told me that she had not gotten enough rest, and that when she did sleep, the room hadn’t been dark enough.  I told her that she was the only person on the planet who could say something like that, that the rest of us had a litany of health faux pas we could blame, but only she could say she should have gotten more rest!  She had never even taken so much as an aspirin until a year ago, when the lymphs in her armpit got so swollen and painful!  No, that will never make sense to me.

Our homeschooling community is grieving collectively.  Bonnie, in her quiet, gentle way touched so many of us very profoundly.  She was the kind of Christian “Proverbs 31″ woman that most of us can only hope to be.  She was so firm in her faith and convictions, yet never judgmental or legalistic.  She loved everybody without compromising her own faith or family.  Her children are a living legacy of her faith and beauty.  Her oldest two daughters are barely grown, but they already shine with the strong Christian Faith and Spirit of their mother. I have no doubt that her son and youngest daughter will, as well.  If all of us could be that sort of Christian, this world would truly be a different place.  She was the kind of friend who inspired me to be a better wife, mother, person.  And, without question, I am a better person for having known her.  I can only pray that I will grow to be more like her, and that maybe, in some small way, I can pass on the many blessings she gave to me to someone else.

I read this morning that Obama has raised a record $150 million for his campaign.  Of course, that’s the money we know about.  I’m sure it doesn’t count everything he’s gotten from sources he doesn’t want his fellow Americans to know about.  I don’t know how much money McCain has raised, but I am sure it’s a lot, too.  Now, do they really need all of that money?  Of course not!  And we, the American people, would certainly be grateful to see fewer campaign ads, right?  Everybody I’ve ever talked to, in any campaign, has made up their minds fairly early on about who they will vote for, and definitely by this point in the campaign.

So what is my idea?  Feed all that extra money into the economy!  Now, I am no good with numbers, and don’t have a clue about economics, but even in the face of trillions of dollars of debt, I’m sure a few million dollars could help!  After all, when I have a debt to pay, I’m expected to start small and work my way up.  Why don’t these candidates prove how dedicated they are and prove to us that they will lead by example?  I know it’s not technically their debt.  It ain’t mine, either, baby!  But I have to help out, whether I like it or not.  I think they should have to, as well.

Hi, everyone.  About a year ago I wrote about my friend Bonnie discovering that she had breast cancer.  Nothing could have been more shocking to all of us who know her, because Bonnie is the healthiest person any of us have ever met.  There is no history of breast cancer in her family.  She was raised on organic, whole foods.  She has never had a drop of alcohol in her life, and has not only never smoked, but has never even been around “second-hand” smoke!  She only uses natural remedies when she needs them, and, up until the cancer started really hurting, she had never even had an aspirin!  She doesn’t eat sugar, or any sort of junk food, ever.  And like I said, this is not something she started as an adult.  She grew up with this lifestyle!

Anyway, during the past year, she and her family have had to face many very tough decisions about her care and treatment.  They were finally ready to go talk to a surgeon at the beginning of this week, when Bonnie started suffering from excruciating headaches, nausea, dizziness and vomiting.  They did some tests and discovered that there are now spots in her brain.  So, radiation was begun.  Today, her oldest daughter posted the following note on Facebook, and as she asked us to share it with anyone who would pray, I am posting it here.

Please, please pray for Bonnie and her family.  They are very dear to so many of us.  Bonnie was my first friend in North Carolina, and I delivered her youngest child at home.  So, here’s Laura’s note:

Okay. In brief…

last night about 11:00pm Becky found my mom laying on the bathroom floor, confused and dazed. At 1am she fell out of bed due to a seizure. She was really restless for the rest of the night, still in a daze, and not acknowledging anyone or speaking anything intelligible. She had another seizure attack near 3, 5, and 6. In between these attacks, she was really, really restless. I don’t think there’s been one time since yesterday evening where she was coherent.

I went over there about 4am to let Becky get some rest, and we called an ambulance close to 7am. They took her to Pardee where they gave her a sedative and ran a CAT scan. The dr said that no swelling or hemorrhaging was showing up in her brain, and that this was a good thing. They also put her on a seizure medication to control the attacks. The dr thinks that the seizures are just a side effect of the radiation to her brain. They’re hoping that she’ll sleep now for 1-2 full days, giving the radiation time to work and shrink what swelling there is in the brain along with the cancer. He didn’t give any indication of what her state might be once she wakes up.

As of about 12, they’ve assigned her room 113, and were waiting for it to be ready.

Main things to pray for would be that God will give my mother peace and rest, and that He’ll guide the rest of us in the decisions up ahead.

Thanks.

Laura

Alex got his provisional driver’s license yesterday.  He has since driven himself all over the place, and we are confident that he will soon master that gear shift, resulting in much smoother take-offs and no more stalling out at stoplights!  He says it feels like he suddenly sprouted wings.  Yeah. . . I remember that feeling.  There is nothing in the life of a teenager quite as liberating as having a car and beginning to feel some sense of freedom. He still can’t drive after 9:00 pm, which I think is an odd choice of curfew, since any movie one might want to go see would most likely end at or after that time, but it only lasts for six months, providing he doesn’t have any violations during that time.  The curfew also prevents him from driving himself to most of his play rehearsals, since they typically end at 9:00 pm.

In other news, Gaylon and I got a really nice treat when we went out to eat at Carrabba’s tonight.  It took them 55 minutes to get our order to us, and so, when they did finally bring it, they informed us it was “on the house”!  All we had to do was tip our waiter!  So for the price of what it would have cost us to eat at McDonald’s, we both got our meals, tiramisu (ummmm. . . .) Gaylon got coffee and I had two glasses of wine!  That is hard to beat!

There seems to be plenty of gasoline, now, which is also really nice.  After that last big hurricane that hit Galveston, we had a major gasoline shortage here in the Southeast.  Asheville even shut down the schools and city offices for a couple of days, because people simply couldn’t get to work.  But, things seem to be okay now.  I think there needs to be some sort of contingency plan, because I seriously doubt that that will be the last hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast states.

I continue to be amazed by the politics in our country.  I heard an ad for Obama on the radio yesterday, telling me that McCain plans to tax health insurance benefits, and that he even states such on his website.  The ad was clear, concise, and very convincing.  Even though I know that Obama is not who he pretends to be, it was almost tempting to believe him.  But, being the research freak that I am, I looked up McCain’s website, just to see if it was true.  It is not.  In fact, they have devoted an entire page on his site refuting the lies in Obama’s ads.  I get so sick of this garbage!  But then, I guess if I had the voting record and the funding sources and supporters that Obama has, I wouldn’t want to talk about myself either, lest someone actually listen and realize the truth.  Much safer to attack the other guy.  Of course, McCain isn’t doing much better.  I am so discouraged by this campaign.  I have already begun to pray that God will send us a wonderful candidate in four years, because there certainly isn’t one this go-round.

And last but not least, if you haven’t checked out all the videos on YouTube and all the other video posting sites with Tina Fey (of Saturday Night Live fame) impersonating Sarah Palin, you’re really missing out on some great humor!  Tina Fey does such an amazing job, it’s sometimes easy to forget that she’s just a comdienne, and not Sarah Palin herself!  Back in 1980, I had the privelege of attending Ronald Reagan’s inaugural gala in Washington.  The best part was the celebrities!  I got to see Frank Sinatra sing New York, New York, and got to watch the inimitable Rich Little.  Bob Hope was there, too.  No, they don’t make ‘em like they used to, but Tina Fey really does do a great job that I think would even impress Rich Little.

Okay, so I have been bragging on my little girl a lot lately, so please indulge me while I brag, yet again, on her domestic skills!  My cousin, Branden, and his wife, Laura, just had a beautiful baby girl. (Otherwise known as “Princess Lily”!)  When Laura found out that Faith could crochet, she put in an order for a crochet cap for the baby.  Lily’s colors are chocolate and pink, so the hat, of course, had to match.  Faith did it all by herself, with absolutely no help from me.  She followed a pattern for the hat, but designed the flower herself.  Below is a picture (used with permission from Princess Lily’s Mom) of that precious baby wearing the hat that my precious baby made!

Lily wearing the Cap Faith made for her

It feels like I hit the ground running on Monday morning, and things have yet to slow down!  On Monday, Faith and I loaded Pippin up and took him to the vet to be neutered.   When we picked him up at 4:30 that afternoon, the poor little guy was absolutely stoned!  At one point, when he was trying to walk, he just fell over!!  However, he made a quick recovery and is doing great now.

Faith and also started working on her new denim jumper.  She has been after me to teach her how to sew, and this is what she wanted to start with.

On Tuesday, Faith and I went into town to pick up some extra fabric we needed for her jumper, and for a quilt she is planning to make.  Then we had lunch.  That evening, Alex and I had dinner with some friends, then all of us headed over to the Flat Rock Playhouse for a Spotlighter’s meeting, then got to go to the Dress Rehearsal of “Tuesdays With Morrie”.  It was a really poignant play, and gave us both a lot to think about.

Wednesday was spent with more sewing, and of course, schoolwork. I spent some time working on the website I am tring to get up and running for my genealogy research, too. It’s coming right along, but still nowhere near ready!

Thursday was spent doing more sewing, and hanging out with my friend, Lisa, in the afternoon.  That’s always a nice break!

Today has been spent finishing up the jumper, 90% of which Faith sewed by herself!  It is beautiful, and it looks so sweet on her.  Now we just finishing up packing so we can head over to the Eucharistic Congress.