Saying Goodbye

My precious baby girl, Rebecca Mignon went home to heaven on August 28,2010. She was 39 years old.

She spent the last 13 days of her life in Grant Medical Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, undergoing all kinds of tests. The first week there, we were told she had pancreatic cancer. They were planning on sending her home. With chemo , we were told she could have a year to live. The second week, her kidneys failed and her liver stopped producing proteins. She died on Saturday. Our pastor said that God showed her mercy even in death, because what kind of life would that year have been. She suffered horrible back pain.

The one thing that haunts me is, where she couldn't have anything to eat most of the time we were there because of the tests. She would beg for food and I wanted to give her some so bad.

We had to say good-bye to Granny Brown on July 26,2010, also. Becky was down there on her birthday. We thought she was having kidney stone problems then, and was pretty sick. Her aunt
Diana told cousin Lisa it was her b-day, and Lisa, who was headed to Wal-mart brought back helium balloons and gifts for all of us to give her. Lisa's gift was a gag one filled with prunes, rubber gloves, etc. ( Becky had impacted bowels from all the vicadin she had been taking). She enjoyed the small party we did for her.

Came home, and we had bought tickets for "Phantom" for Saturday (aug.14). She went to see Dr. Peck on thursday Aug. 12. He said he couldn't see the stone, but scheduled some surgery for Tues. the 17th. Said he would try to use a scope and go in that way, just because she was in so much pain. She had appt. with Dr. Sinha that same afternoon. He said he would look at the CAT scan one more time. He came back in room and told her something was wrong with the pancreas. Set up an appt for a surgeon on next Thursday.Sent her to Shelby Hosp. for blood work.

Friday, she was so sick she said she could not go to see "Phantom". Sold Andi Glass the ticket.Sat. morning Andi called said she had been sick all night and could not go with us.Told Beck and she said she was a little better and decided to go with us. She had a good time and told me once that she was excited to see the show again. Still pretty sick, but she carried on.

Monday morning called Dr. Sinha and said she could not wait till Thurs. He sent her to Ashland Hospital Emergency room. The ER doc. had the original CAT scan sent to him and told us that the "cyst" was really large and she needed to be referred to Grant or OSU. Which one can get me in first, she said. A squad came in 15 min. and took her to Grant, where she stayed for 13 days and died.

So now I have to say good-bye to her and Granny. One of the mom's of Adam's friends had become good friends with her. She sent a bouquet of flowers to the funeral. It had one red rose and one white rose that was just a bud in it.Pam told Heather that the red rose meant friendship and the white rose meant saying good-bye.

This morning the red rose looks the same, but the white rose bud has bloomed out and the petals are already starting to fall off. I guess she is saying good -bye to us too.

Be happy in heaven Beck ! We'll be there soon so save us a place next to you. Love forever Mom

HALF A DOZEN KIDS

Once there were six siblings

Born in ole Kentuck

To get them all together

Would take a lot of luck

But they made a lot of plans

and vowed thru thick and thin

That they would work and work

And be together once again

It happened in October

of the year two thousand and nine

And when they got together

Boy, did that group shine

They met at sister Betty's house

and hugged and laughed and kissed

And being all together once again

Was so much joy and bliss

They had aunts and cousins

who came from far and near

to share in the reunion

with smiles and words of cheer

And when the time was over

Each had to go their own way

But they had made many happy memories

to store in their hearts to stay

Thoughts on a polka dot.

Tonight I feel like a polka dot. A polka dot is one small dot in a pattern on a piece of material or a printed document. When you look at the pattern you can see all the polka dots, but to pick out one specific dot would be very difficult.

You can get buried real deep in a polka dot pattern and never be noticed. You look like all the other polka dots and have very little significance to anyone.

To be noticed in a polka dot pattern you have to be different from all the other polka dots. For instance if you were a blue polka dot in a black pattern, you surely would be noticed.

Many times I wished I could be a blue polka dot but I've always been a black polka dot. Sometimes that is a good thing, but at other times you have a great desire to be different.

So, if being a black polka dot is my lot in life, then I must bear it. I will faithfully keep my place in the pattern until it is my time to go to the great polka dot place in the sky. And then, when I am gone, I will be a blue polka dot, for there will be a vacant place in the pattern and people will easily recognize my place and say, "There's a polka dot gone from that spot". If that don't make you blue, then nothing will.

Goodnight to all you fellow black polka dots out there. "I" know you're out there.

Last Mow

Well, I mowed my yard (the front only) today for , I hope, the last time this year. Had to use the push mower because the rider is broken. I had to mow some and then rest before I could mow the rest. Also it started lightly raining while I was mowing the first time and my back was getting pretty wet, another good reason to stop for a while.

Usually by this time each year the grass has a lot of brown in it and doesn't need any more mowing. It's still pretty green and with all the rain we've been having it still is growing very well.

But!!! Beware grass. The weatherman has forcasted snow for sometime this week. Probably a few flakes in the air, but nevertheless snow. Now we all know for a surety that grass can't grow when there's snow in the air. Don't we???????

I am not really ready for snow, but if it will stop that grass from growing, I guess I can stand a little of it.I have pushed that mower around the yard all I care to, for this year.

The only drawback to this problem is, that when you put the mower away for the year, you have to dig the snow blower out. Not looking forward to that either.

Oh, well, it's not too hard to snow blow those few flakes blowing around in the air.

Happy prewinter everyone.

A Rainy Day

Fall is rapidly approaching the city of Shelby in the state of Ohio. I welcome it some days and other days I dread it with a passion. Today is one of the days I dread it. It has been raining this afternoon and even the house feels damp and chills you to the bone.

I still have outside things to be stored for the winter and I need wood carried to the back porch before the snow flies........... The yard may need to be mowed once more before the mower can be put away and this rain will surely cause the leaves to fall from the trees, so that raking is lookin good for future weeks.


April will be flying home next weekend and after coming to see me and the girls and their homes on Saturday, she and I will travel to Ky. until Monday, when I will take her back to the airport in Columbus for her flight back to Utah. Then I will drive back to Shelby to try and catch up before another onslaught of things begin to happen. It will be a good thing to be with all my family one more time.

I will just try to live one day at a time for a few weeks and see what happens. Hoping to stay warm and dry tonight. Love and Prayers to all.

Good Growing Times

When I planted my little garden this year, I asked God to bless it and told Him, I would try my best to not let any of it go to ruin. Be careful what you tell God.

Since I got 8 tomato plants that were the little Roma's, I figured I would not get much juice, which is what I was out of. One of my friends at church had a really good tomato year and ended up giving me enough tomatoes to can about 30 qts. It still didn't look like I would get much of a crop from my garden. Then we went on vacation for 9 days, and when I got home, walaaaaaa! Tomatoes galore. I have canned tomatoes until I am tired of them. But I told God!!!!!!!!!!.

I went out last week and picked everything left in the garden that was ripe because we had a frost warning for that night. It did come a big frost during the night. But we were having our ladies retreat on Sat. and I had a million things to do for it. So the 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes and the 4 heads of cabbage and the huge bucket of carrots had to be put on hold.

All I have left is the tomatoes, which are in two cookers on the stove, and will be juiced when they are done cooking, and one very large head of cabbage. I had to throw out a few tomatoes but I have saved most all of the produce and can feel that I didn't let God down.

I am sure these things will taste very, very good this winter when the cold winds blow and we are snowed in, but today I do not like tomatoes or cabbage. Hopefully, by tomorrow I will have everything canned or frozen for this year.

Next year, Lord, I don't think I want a garden!

A different car

Have been home from our vacation for almost a week and it has flown by. Hit a deer when we were a mile from Heather's house and messed up the left side of the van pretty bad. It isn't drive able until it's fixed so I am driving a rental.

Now I don't know why they give you such lousy cars for rentals. This car has nothing you would consider an extra feature on it. The windows are crank and I haven't had to manually roll down a window for a long, long time. The locks are all manual too. I have to stretch across the seat to unlock the door when someone else rides with me.

Wednesday night I drove to church and when I started home I realized I didn't know where the lights were. I had one of the guys come and help me look. A third guy finally sh0wed me where they were.

The gears are on the column on the floor and my hand roams all over the dashboard and down the sides of the front of the dash before I find the shifter.

It is very low to the ground and I'm afraid one of these times I am not going to be able to pull myself up out of the thing when I stop. I may find myself sitting in it for hours before someone realizes that I am stuck in it.

I know that I have probably shocked you very badly to know what a horrific life I now find myself in, but if you all pray real hard , they may call next week and say they are ready to fix my van. Until then I will just have to do the best I can with what the good Lord has given me.


Hope to be driving a Pontiac Montana real soon.