In Memory, Gladys Norris Mackey

Yesterday's mail brought a packet from Pam Mackey, a cousin of some degree (I think her father was my mother's first cousin. If someone knows for sure, let me know.). She included a copy of her mother's obituary, a favorite recipe of her mother's, a picture of the Joel E. Mackey family, and a photo taken during a visit to Gillette in the 1990s.

Joe Mackey, Rose Mackey McLaughlin, Fred Bard, Elsie Mackey Bard, Gladys Mackey,
 Bess Mackey Sauble, Mary Mackey, Leonard Sauble

It is always saddens me to learn that another of the generation above mine in the extended Mackey family has died, although I think that for Gladys this was probably in the nature of a blessed release. The obituary tells that she spent her last three years in an Alzheimers care facility.

I did not know Gladys well, but met her a few times when she visited her cousins-by-marriage in Wyoming. I remember her as a lovely, lively, happy and friendly lady.

Pam had my address from when I sent out the information about Rose McLaughlin's death (my mother) to the people in her address book. For the family who knew Gladys and had not heard of her passing, I will include the obituary.

Angels on My Wall

  It is time to put away the Christmas decorations. I always miss the decorations for a time after they are put away for another year--everything seems plain and drab until my brain becomes adjusted to the everyday look of things.

Before they are packed away, I took some photos of the angels on my walls. These angels are actually Christmas ornaments, but I have begun putting them up on the wall rather than on the tree. They just sort of disappear amongst all the other things on the tree, and some of them are heavy enough they really don't work well on my small tree. However, I do want to see and enjoy them every year. So--on the wall.

Most of these angelic ornaments have been gifts from my daughter's family. This year's angel is four inches tall with incredible detail. In one hand she is holding a stable with Mary and Joseph. In the other hand is a tiny manger with the baby Jesus. You have to look closely to see it. Swirled around her skirts are banners with the slogan "Jesus is the Reason for the Season."

These ornaments are tiny works of art and they please my eye.

Getting Some Christmas Spirit

It is early Wednesday morning, and my house is filled with wonderful music playing through the TV's surround sound system.

Yes, I have pulled out my Christmas CDs--and I have a lot of them. Then I also have a considerable number of Christmas tapes, collected before CDs were the way to buy music. I also have three Christmas albums on my Kindle fire, so I can have Christmas music no matter which room I am in.

It hasn't been easy finding that wonderful Christmas Spirit this year. My mind has been too full of all the medical stuff going on with me, my sister, my daughter, my granddaughter, and even my daughter's family pets.

One way I awaken some Christmas Spirit is through  music and through the multitude of Christmas movies on TV. The movies may be silly or predictable or sentimental (which can be good or not so good) and of varying quality, but they are reliably upbeat and a happy ending is insured. So with these mood lifters I find my Christmas Spirit growing.

Our Christmas tree would normally be up in the corner of my living room by this far into December. The plan was for Megan and I to put it up and decorate it last weekend. She and I have been the tree people for years, but this weekend she was not feeling well. However, I did get out the little tabletop tree.

The little tree is looking just a bit worn, as it well deserves. It was originally Chad and Anne Marie's tree twenty-some years ago. They passed it on to Jerry and I when we were living in the mobile home in Rapid City. Then, while I was staying with Mother in her last years, I put it out in her house. If it is looking just a bit battered, it is still a loved piece of our family Christmas history.

For Christmas shopping I went to the Internet. I get lots of catalogs every Christmas, and after looking them over I go to the websites and order things. When the boxes arrive I am usually surprised by the contents, having already forgotten what all I ordered in my shopping frenzy. Some of the items may seem a little odd, but at least my shopping is done!

By the time we get to the Christmas Eve service at church, the Christmas Spirit will prevail.

Selfies, or I Need an Updated Photo

Taken October 2011

"Selfies" made it recently as a word to be added to the dictionary. In this age when nearly everyone is carrying a phone that also is a camera, selfies have become a popular item of exchange through the electronic media.


August 2014

I am one of the few people I know whose phone does not take photos. However, three years ago I used my ordinary camera to take some selfies, one of which I have used for my blog and Facebook.




November 2014

In trying to take selfies, I learned that it's not so easy! If the camera is tipped a little one way or another, you end up with an oddly distorted face. It is also very easy to get the aim wrong and to end up with part of your face cut off. I have an additional problem in that I wear glasses with differing nearsighted prescriptions for each eye. This has the effect of making one eye appear smaller than the other.


I finally got a photo I liked and I've used that one for three years now.

Unfortunately, that photo is no longer very accurate. Three years have added age to my features. I also had a very fattening winter last year and am still wearing those extra pounds. (I'm working on that but it is slow going. Now that I'm in cardiac rehab, I hope that may help.)

November 2014

So, in the interest in truth, I tried to take an updated photo of myself. OK, so I don't want to be so truthful that I use the very worst photos--i.e., every wrinkle, sag, or flaw emphasized. I hoped to get one that looked like I look now without making me cringe by its overemphasis on said flaws! (Maybe even de-emphasize them a little?!) When it comes to photos, honesty is all well and good, but let's not overdo it!

Most of the selfies I took that weren't blurry, partially cut off, or just plain spooky, are still not loved by me. But I can't go on using only old photos.

So, I have sprinkled some of the most recent selfies through this blog. I hope they don't frighten any small children!

Maybe I need to get another photographer.

Going Places, Having Adventures, and Meeting New People

A standard piece of advice for senior citizens is this: stay active, get out of the house, socialize with other people. It is bad for both mental and physical health to become isolated.

My sister Grace and I--who, at ages 76 and 73 certainly qualify as senior citizens--have recently being doing a lot of going out, having new experiences, and meeting new people.

The only problem is that the places we have been going are medical facilities and the people we have been meeting have all been medical professionals.

In the past four and a half months I have had a trip to the ER with an unstoppable nose bleed, nasal surgery to remove the cluster of bleeder veins, tests that revealed heart problems, and a cardiac cath with insertion of a stent. I cancelled my scheduled cataract surgery, because of all the things involved in the cardiac situation--I'll get that done in a few months. My high blood pressure has been brought under control, at last.

Although our problems differ, Grace and I have both had close calls with the Grim Reaper. It is due to the care we have received from all those new acquaintances that we are both still here and growing stronger.

Years ago there was a lot of controversy over the expression "It takes a village to raise a child." I can definitely say that it has taken a village of medical personnel to keep this senior citizen on the path to health. When I started reviewing in my mind all the people involved, I was quite astounded!

Since the last week of June there have been: 

• 10 doctors (ER doctor, General Internist, Radiologist, Cardiologists, ENT specialist, Ophthalmologist specializing in glaucoma and cataracts, Geriatrics specialist, Hospitalist)
• More nurses than I can keep track of, all of whom have been highly competent, professional, caring and comforting
• Many technicians, who have drawn blood, taken EKGs, performed scans, taken X-Rays, and more
• Numerous receptionists and patient registrars
• A dietitian
• Two cardiac rehab nurses

And I am thankful for each and every one of them!



Chad took this picture a few hours after the
stent was inserted and sent it to my son.
Jeremy was being very anxious and feeling
helpless since he was 2000 miles away.

Many things came together to bring about the discovery of the 90 percent blockage of the heart artery popularly known as The Widowmaker. The insertion of a stent to open that blockage saved me from a certain fatal heart attack. It has not been fun, but I am, nevertheless, grateful for each and every step that led to the saving of my life. I am also extremely thankful for all the people that prayed for me when I suddenly found myself in the ICU headed for a cardiac cath and stent. We can never know just what part prayer plays, but I believe it truly makes a difference.

Grace's story is her own, but I will only say that she also has a long list of caretakers and prayers that saved her.

We are moving on.
 

Five O'clock This Morning

Today is September 11, 2014. It is the anniversary of the dreadful destruction wreaked by terrorists. I don't forget that.

But today my thoughts are on something else. I woke early and when I wasn't going right back to sleep I got up and looked out my bedroom window.

This is what I saw.

Last year the first snow was the last week of September and was six to eight inches. One week later, first week of October, we had 14-18 inches that created terrible destruction in the fully-leaved trees all over town. That was, we thought, an unusually early snowfall/end of summer.

Just gotta love this terrible Global Warming!

Reminds me that in the 1970s I read an article in Time Magazine all about how the earth was heading into a cooling period that could bring in a new ice age.

Weather fluctuates. It always has.

But I am still extremely disgruntled about the shortness of our summer this year!!

Seventeen!

Yesterday was granddaughter Megan's Seventeenth (!) birthday. It was also the first day of school (Senior Year). She had a long school day, followed by two hours of marching band practice.

Needless to say, by suppertime she was exhausted and barely functioning.

Stay awake just a little longer!

Last year her birthday fell before the first day of school and we had quite a party with all her grandparents and her boyfriend included. The highlight was when she discovered that her parents had bought her a car (used, but well-rehabbed by her dad).

This birthday was a lot quieter. She had requested a spaghetti dinner and a dinosaur cake. Anne Marie makes a great spaghetti sauce; the bakery made a cake with a dinosaur motif. Since it was a school-marching band practice day, we just had our little family, which includes friend Gwen.

Megan was so wiped out that she dropped on the sofa and napped until the meal was on the table.

Before birthday cake she opened her gifts--nothing to match last year's car! In fact, they weren't even wrapped; they were just in the mailing packages they came in, because they arrived just before dinner time. (Whew!) So there was opening, but no pretty paper.

Trying out her new manga art pens.

Megan had perked up a bit by the time the cake was brought to the table. In fact, she had a goofy contest with her mother: as Anne Marie lit a candle, Megan would blow it out. Finally, both candles were alight at the same time and we got to sing "Happy Birthday."

Do you remember a nutty video that was on You Tube last year in which a couple of young guys did a "Do you want to see how animals eat their food?" demonstration? If you do, you will understand the final photos. Take one tired-silly teenager, cake, and the above-mentioned video, and this is what you get.

And that was the end of her brief energy revival. She washed her face and headed off to bed at 8 o'clock.

The rest of us visited for a while longer.