Update Letter on My Family

Dear Readers,

Almost every Wednesday since I started this blog, I have written an essay about something JDaniel or I has learned, an activity we have done or what is currently going on at our house. Recently I haven’t been posting those essays.

I plan for them, sit down to write them, and they just don’t come. It isn’t that things haven’t been happening to write about. It just hasn’t felt right to write about them and sometimes these writing sessions  lead to bouts of tears.

Here are some of what has been going on.

My mom spent seven weeks in the hospital during the winter. During that time the doctor’s found pancreatic cancer. While she was in the hospital, I tried to visit her every day. I missed about four days, but knew other family members were  there on those days.

Mom moved from the hospital to a nursing home that offers rehabilitation. At first she refused to eat, drink or communicate there. She had been better in the hospital. It took several weeks before she made any strides at all. When she did, she learned to walk again, feed herself and write.

Earlier in the year I became her power of attorney and had to make big decisions with the aid of sisters, but not my mom.

The blog and writing posts for it weren’t something that I had a lot of time to do. As you may recall, I went back to work full time in the fall right before my mom got sick. Between work, doing things for my mom, house stuff, being JDaniel4’s mom, and JDaniel3’s wife my plate has been full.  I have had to cut back on the number of post that I share each week.

Doing cooking projects, crafts, and learning activities with JDaniel has been a wonderful outlet during this time. Writing posts about those topics has been easier than the more introspective or serious posts.

Things have slowed down a little with my mom. I haven’t had any late night hospital visits to make sure her gall bladder drain is in place in a week. A wonderful hospice group has joined the nursing home team and my family in taking care of her. There are still things like getting her house ready for sale, staying on top of her bills, and working on making memories with her. Thankfully the to do list much shorter than it has been.

I hope to start writing personal essays again! I really miss writing them. They have been a great way to save memories from JDaniel’s childhood.

Until they come without tears when they come at all I won’t be sharing them here. I hope you will stick with me and will find fun thing to do in the posts that you find here.

Many of you have e-mailed, Facebook messaged me, left amazing comments and have sent sweet treasures to my family. I am so thankful for them and for you!

Take Care,

JDaniel4’s Mom