John’s thoughts, rants, and crazy ideas
This past week, we took Suzanne’s dad out for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel, in Urbana. As is customary now, I explained to the waitress that Suzanne was unable to eat solid foods and I ordered an orange juice for her. The waitress responded to Suzanne in a slow, distinctive, and very elevated voice, “would you like a water or straw with that?” To which, I shared that she couldn’t use a straw and would be fine with just the…
Growing up, young boys watch their dads for queues as to how to become a man. Up early, work hard, provide for the family, these are all traits fathers hope to pass along to their sons. I was fortunate that my dad passed on another trait, it’s OK to be a man and cry. Not one you were expecting, I’m sure, but it is one that I recognized early in my adult life. I would see dad cry, especially when…
This year has brought so many challenges to our family, it’s hard to imagine. With Suzanne’s surgery in February that changed her eating and speaking ability for the rest of her life, to the clinical trial that she is in that hopefully will keep her cancer from returning, the death of my brother whom I will miss dearly, family turmoil and the many challenges that the pandemic has thrust upon us all, a difficult year is an understatement. But the…
Geneology and discovering details about my ancestors has always been a big part of my life. As a young teen, most kids would have been out riding bikes or playing ball on a Saturday. My fondest memories were spending many Saturday mornings at my mom’s cousin’s house, sitting around a table of eight to ten women, all of who had to be 5 times my age, taking notes on everything they said. Dates and places of family events; towns, and…
Thanksgiving today, and reflecting on what we have to be thankful for seems appropriate. Many would think that being in our current situation, it would be easier to complain about how life has thrown us a curveball, but they would be wrong. Every day, every hour we have the opportunity to continue our life together is something to be thankful for. Yesterday, on her twelfth PATHway Trial visit to Rush in Chicago, Suzanne had her third round of scans along…
Nothing in this universe brings more joy to my wife than a horse. If she can raise them, ride them, bet on them, judge them or just watch them, she’s as close to heaven as she’ll ever be here on earth. I love taking her to the horse races. Since we’ve been married, I don’t think we ever went to the track that after admission, drinks & dinner we didn’t walk out with more cash than we went in with….
I woke up this morning to news shows reminding me it was veterans day, the day we remember all the service members who unselfishly gave their time to protect you and me. I always fly the flag on Veterans day, a tradition my dad taught me, but today was a little different. The inclement weather is keeping me from doing so, a rule I had to look up. According to the Flag Code (Section 6-c) “The flag should not be…
Tonight, as Suzanne finished getting ready to relax for the evening she proclaimed “It’s a Good Day!” For her, in the scheme of her last eight months, it was a hugely big day. Since February, she has been on a mission of proving the Dr’s wrong that she would only “eat for pleasure and probably never speak more than a few words in a row”. Today was the sixth consecutive day that she ate 100% of her calories by mouth,…
I really struggled with how I was going to approach this post. As much entertainment as we got today, it could very easily be a post about bad judgment. Yesterday and through last night we received four inches of rain. That much rain is a guarantee that our bottom ground west of the house will flood and flow over our road west of the bridge. You see, on the other side of the bridge the road takes a dip and…
Most of us were raised by our parents and had siblings, brothers, and sisters that were an important part of who we are now. For some, you had a big sister, the one who taught you all that stuff your mom was too shy to talk about. But for the rest of us, the lucky ones, we had a big brother. It’s the job of the big brother to be the protector, the one who watches out for you at…