My mother used to say that she was a "double Irish," since somewhere in her line two distant Flanery cousins got married to one another. That gave rise, I imagine, to her own double dose of good humor in face of any situation. About now we are really missing her. All kinds of questions about our family have cropped up since her passing, and I am totally clueless. Her memory was incredible. Once I was working with her putting my Dishman ancestors on a computer program and just to tease her I asked her about some obscure wife (with no known last name) married to a Dishman--five generations back. She got all flustered because she couldn't recall her name by memory instantly. But an hour later, while we were working on an entirely different matter, she blurted out the name. As for me, I have trouble remembering who my great grand parents were, much less 5 generations back. But even more than her memory we miss her smile. And on this day of Irish smiles, we miss that sweet smile all the more.
I suppose it's that inherited Irish optimism that is coloring my thinking today as I observe Susan. It seems to me that she is gaining strength and more nutrition every day. For example these past four days have seen an ever increasing stream of visitors, and I have tolerated that since she seems to relish it so. "I crave female compansionship," she says. Trying to hide my heart wounded by this remark (what? you are getting tired of watching 8 hours of college basketball every day??)....I have allowed visits by Kathy S. on Friday, Susanna & Lydia & Angie on Saturday (including a trip to Ying's Chinese), and later that day by Kathy B. and Megan, and by Jane last night, etc. Oh yes, we went to church (and then to Krogers again) on Sunday and she handled that well. Then today Dan & Kathy came over with Tori and Nate, whose birthday--way back in January--we finally celebrated. In addition she engineered the carpet cleaning folks to come in and clean every carpet in our house today. (I'm sitting here in the only non-carpeted area in the house...exiled from my study and computer.) She's also finished all three high calorie drinks provided by MDA, and we are getting ready to try the Scandishakes tomorrow before we head out to Houston. Furthermore, she even had two crackers topped with cottage cheese, and she's almost finished all the potato soup provided by Terrie. I hope I'm not looking through rose colored glasses as I report these impressions. On the other hand the one negative indicator was the CA-125 report from last week's visit at MDA. It's risen to an all time high of 1725. However, even this can be interpreted optimistically: as the body is stimulated by the successful war of the TLK over the cancer cells it secretes more tumor marker. So, other than that one ambiguous indicator, Irish eyes are smiling on Ash Circle today. Thanks again for your prayers.
Posted by John Dishman at March 17, 2003 08:18 PM