Month: April 2012
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Tempting
There was someone to pick me up at the airport. My fridge had been filled with soup and carrots and hummus and my favourite kind of breakfast toast and some Early Grey were on the kitchen bench. There was a loaner humidifier and a whole new floor lamp in the lounge. It was one of…
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Can’t Imagine
My friend Manya is coming to pick me up for the airport in about an hour. I have my travel outfit on: loose jersey dress, and flats, with leggings, a cardie,my toothbrush, four trashy magazines, and a change of underwear in my carry-on. I’ve said the goodbyes that need to be said and made myself…
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Lucky
We are so lucky, we all say. My mother, my sister, all our friends, all the radiation techs and nurses and neurologists and social workers and clinical psychologists and registered dieticians and cancer clinic receptionists and schedulers. Everyone: “We are so lucky.” Let us count the ways: She was over 65 when she got this…
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Waiting In Vain
After our road trip to Tampa to see what I’m referring to as New Places, because I cannot bring myself to say the words ‘Assisted Living Facility,’ the car is the last place I want to be, yesterday’s mind-numbing drive across Alligator Alley being what it is. Radiation is still at 10:15 five days a…
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Get It Done
Up at 7:30, breakfast at 8:30, morning pills by 9:20 and in the car by 9:30 to make it to treatment in Miami Beach by 10:15. “Okay, Mom,” I say, ”please get started on your protein smoothie. Okay, Mom, please check your chart. Okay, Mom, please let this dissolve on your tongue and then rinse…