Ann

 


   In the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes, Idgie is trying to comfort Stump. Stump is the son of Idgie's business partner Ruth who is dying of cancer. She says, "I guess you already know that there are angels masquerading as people walking around this planet and your mom was the bravest one of those." It's one of my favourite quotes in the entire movie. Part of the reason is because I believe it is true. One of them was a guy I knew in high school named Harold. Another is my cousin, Ann.

   I'm writing this on Friday night and right now my cousin Ann is in Rochester. Her niece, Rachel, is there in hospice with just days to live. Rachel was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, I'm not sure when. Ann and Rachel's siblings are there to spend this time together before Rachel leaves mortality. Ann has been caring for Rachel during her illness.

   Unfortunately, this is not a new situation for Ann. Her older sister, Jean, who is Rachel's mother, fought cancer for almost a decade before losing her battle to the disease when Rachel was in her mid teens. Ann cared for Jean and Jean's children, after Jean passed away. (Not sure what happened to Jean's husband)

   Ann has a brother named Albert. He is about my age and developmentally disabled. He is a really nice guy with an amazing ability to remember sports scores for the local high school football team and the Green Bay Packers. (They live in Wisconsin.) My aunt and uncle did not want Albert to live in a group home. Right now he lives with my aunt, my uncle passed away a few years ago. If/when my aunt is no longer able to care for Albert, he will move in with Ann, who has agreed to care for him. 

   Lisa is one of the older cousins so I honestly don't know her well. I do know that she has worked in several different fields and that she retired a few years ago. She lives a few blocks away from her mother. I recently learned that shares her home with a couple of cats. 

   I didn't know about Rachel until my Dad told me yesterday. News doesn't get around as fast as it used to. When I found out I knew that I wanted to reach out to Ann. This has to be very hard for her because she is so close to Rachel. Even though Ann and I are not close, I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her. 

   I'm hoping that Ann and I might be able to get to know each other a bit better. I feel like our love of cats might be the start of other things we may have in common.  As I get older, I want to get to know more of some of  my extended family, also I feel like Ann would be someone I'd like to have as a role model. Who better than a woman masquerading as an angel.

  

  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simple Things

     C and I usually have a date day or at least part of a date day once a week. It's a time where we spend time with each other doing something fun or maybe simply having lunch out. Since Thursday was Thanksgiving and neither of us felt like eating out, we decided to go out for a hot chocolate.   Right before we left C had an idea. We should get our hot chocolate and also share a peppermint shake from Chick-fil-A. He said the the combination of the hot chocolate and the cool peppermint shake would be really good. I thought it was overkill, but agreed to do it.    After dropping a loaf of bread off at a friend's house we went through the drive through to get the hot chocolate. When I have a choice I usually get dark chocolate. It's not quite as sweet and has lots of flavour. C always gets milk chocolate. Then we went to Chick-fil-A. C went inside and picked up our preordered shake. It was topped with whipped cream and a cherry. I asked C if he wanted to cherry. He said no s
Read more

Released

   A few weeks ago I was asked to stay after a Ward Council meeting. Normally it's a meeting I don't attend, but the Relief Society president was out of town and one of my duties was to sit in for her on such meetings. I was fairly sure I knew what it was going to be about.     After the meeting I stayed behind while everyone had left. It was just me and one of the bishop's counselors. We sat in some chairs at one side of the bishop's office. He told me that I was going to be released from my calling as a Relief Society counselor. The release was going to be announced at Sacrament meeting (what the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints call their worship service.) that would take place in about 20 minutes. I'm sure I startled the counselor with my expression of joy and relief at what he told me. I'm sure he was expecting me to be upset and bewildered. Usually one knows about a release at least a few days before it happens.     I had a feeling that this was
Read more

Looking for A New Project

           Earlier this year I finished the 10 stitch blanket that I've been working on for a long time. It was a very relaxing project and I enjoyed working on it. Over the summer I haven't knit anything because of lack of time. Now it's fall and I have the itch to start knitting again. I also want a project to take to Door County with me.     I know that I said I wanted to knit a pair of socks, but I'm not sure now. I'd have to teach myself how to knit using a magic loop. I'm sure I could figure it out, but I'd  really like to do something easy and relaxing like that blanket was.     One project I was going to do is to crochet all the granny squares I have together to make a nice little blanket for Willow. It would be fun and relaxing, but it would be hard to take all those granny squares to Door County with me. The same is true for the sample blanket that I want to start. (although I could take a few small balls of yarn along and some stitch patterns to m
Read more