Friday, March 09, 2007

Friends


This is my dear friend Pam (mind you, that's Pamela to everyone else), modeling the hat I knit for her to go with the scarf I knit for her. This was the last of my "specific projects for specific people," and on this, my fourth hat, I got bold and put a pom-pom on top. :-) (It's a good thing Pam doesn't have an internet connection right now, because if she saw her photo on my blog she'd probably kill me.) Still need to get a photo of Pam's girls Karishma and Nileshni in their hat and scarf sets....

Last week I found out that another dear friend of mine has terminal cancer. After we moved here in 1989, Joan and her husband Don quickly "adopted" us. Older than my parents but younger than my grandparents, these British transplants were both friends and mentors. They often said they considered me to be the daughter they never had. Joan and I share a love of horses (she and Don came to several of my horse shows to cheer me on), and she often talked about how she had loved to ride as a girl and how much she missed it. About seven years ago, after Don died, I convinced her to meet me at the county fairgrounds near her home and ride with me, as I had two horses then. It was so much fun to see her thrill to be on horseback again! I took a bunch of photos, which she proudly showed off to her mostly widowed friends, while they tsk-tsked over the foolishness of someone in her 70s doing something so risky.

Unfortunately, I haven't spent very much time with Joan since having Brian. Time has flown by, and now she has cancer. Suddenly, finding the time to be with her is a priority. I was with her for a couple hours yesterday, and will go again tomorrow. I asked her to consider coming to live with us when she could no longer live alone; after all, she has no close family and most of her friends are also elderly. She said she would think about it. I'm not a nurse, but figure at that point Hospice would be involved. Still, I know it would be no walk in the park. But isn't that what the Bible says true religion is? Caring for the widows and orphans? Besides, she's my friend.

That's it for now at . . .

3 comments:

Kathy said...

Unfortunately, we are at the age where we start to lose friends and family more often than we would like to. We have been facing the same thing with a friend of ours with cancer and going through chemo.

Even though there's a lot that they can do for cancer now, it's still very scary. I will keep good thoughts headed your way for you and your friend.

Michelle said...

Apparently, Joan's cancer has spread to all her internal organs, and she doesn't want to undergo chemo or radiation after watching her husband go through that. Everything was normal until three weeks ago, when she began to feel a bit weak and started turning yellow. Friday they put in a stent to help with the jaundice, which had gotten severe. Thankfully, she's comfortable.

As my mom always said, LIFE isn't fair. The devil (not the silly cartoon, but the real deal) doesn't play fair in his hatred of God and all God's creation, and thankfully God doesn't play fair either, or none of us could look forward to a better life! I so look forward to that....

Tina T-P said...

I am so sorry to hear about your friend - I hope that she will take you up on your offer - for both your sakes - hers to have the excellent care that I know you would provide and yours, the priviledge to helping her in her last days. Good luck with what ever happens. T.

P.S. John's surgery was a success - (per the Dr. anyhow) They removed a bone fragment that was pressing on the nerve and didn't have to remove any of the disc. He's home and resting pretty comfortably - (considering that he feels like he has been run over by a truck, anyhow) Take care, T.