Charmaine

Back in 1998, I participated in a spiritual retreat called Christ Renews His Parish. It was a good experience for me and I got to know some neat women. One was Charmaine. Charmaine was diagnosed with lung cancer around the time my brother Tom was battling his brain tumor. Charmaine was an encourager and always brought hope, faith and joy wherever she went. She beat all the odds and lived a full life the whole almost six years since her diagnosis. I did a cut and copy from her family's post on Caring Bridge this week. I am sharing it so you can appreciate the wonderfully faith filled woman she was.

"It is with very heavy hearts that we update Charmaine’s Caring Bridge page. Monday night at 9:23, Charmaine passed away after a nearly 6 year battle with lung cancer. This came as a bit of a surprise to our family as she appeared to be improving throughout Sunday night. However, because of the wisdom and faith Charmaine taught us, we know she's already in heaven looking down on all of us and is now wrapped in the grace and love of God.

Charmaine truly cared for each and every one of you reading this message. Even if she never met you in person, she considered you her friend. Up until her last breath we prayed for our mother, and while we were doing that we believe she was praying for you.

Please take comfort in knowing that she is now in Heaven and she's looking out for you. Please remember her in your prayers as well. Many years ago, Charmaine came up with the idea that if she could get 1 million people to say the Memorare for lung cancer we could find a cure (it worked for Mother Teresa who was looking for a place to house her ministry). It would mean the world to Charmaine and our family if you could take a moment to say the prayer today and perhaps even share it with others as well.

THE MEMORARE
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,
that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection,
implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto thee,
O Virgin of virgins, my mother;
to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.

Almost a month ago, a series of seizures landed Charmaine in the ICU at Rush Hospital. After she woke up from being sedated and intubated for nearly a week, she had several visions where she saw the Blessed Mother. She told us that Mary appeared to her as the Star of Sea and took her to purgatory where she saw all the poor souls suffering. We believe our mother was taken straight to Heaven, but Charmaine specifically asked that we pray for the poor souls in purgatory and asked others to do the same. She said that there is no greater honor than for our small prayers to be made great by God and to help souls along their journey to heaven. She very much wanted for all of you to know this story and to post it to Caring Bridge.

On Sunday, the day before she died, she told our parish priest, Father De Salvo, “Do it right, do it for God,” and kept repeating many times “Tell them to beg for mercy.” Father De Salvo told us he thought this was in response to the suffering she saw in purgatory, and that she understood we need to beg for God’s mercy.

Charmaine trusted in the will of God more faithfully than anyone we know. She never feared death. Monday morning shortly after Ken arrived at the hospital Charmaine told him, “I’m ready to go.”

And lastly, thank you to all of you who cared so much for our mother. You were an integral part of her life and her joy. Up until the very last day she spent much of her time praying for other people, despite the fact she herself was in need of so many prayers. The world lost the most amazing mother, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. But if you have faith and look for her we have faith she will continue to bless your life. Please remember the things she taught you about how to live your life. She had two sayings which we find incredibly helpful and wise, "All the happiness in the whole world is right between your own two ears," and "There are no bad days." If Charmaine could keep that attitude up while battling cancer we certainly can do the same in our lives to honor her.

One of Charmaine’s last wishes was the hope that all of you will live your life glorifying God, begging and praying for His mercy, and seeing the miracles around you everyday. Please look for the miracles around you and post them here in the guestbook."

Finally settling into my summer routine

One of the things that I love best about summer is that I don't have a rigid schedule like I do during the school year. I do thrive on structure, though, and feel better when I have some things scheduled. If I have too much free time, I spend most of it trying to get myself motivated to do something, anything!! This summer is a bit different in that there are not many summer evaluations to be done at work. In the past years, I have done 20-23 per summer, which is roughly equivalent to 20-23 days of work. This summer I was scheduled for less than 10 and most are at the end of July. I did three already. I am also doing some private speech therapy. I get the clients through word of mouth and some SLPs that I have known through the years who know that I like summer work. I am lucky that I am in a profession that allows me so many choices and that I enjoy so much.
Here are some of the happenings so far this summer:
*We somehow skipped Father's Day this year. Jack was in Minnesota for work, Wayne in Rhode Island for a wedding, Sally and Matt were in Memphis visiting friends and I was at home working on reports for the above mentioned evals. Obviously we did not make it to Downtown Sue's to celebrate the dads. It would have been different anyway, of course, without Mike. I am sure it was not an easy day for Lauren and Brendan, their first Father's Day without Mike. We need to make it up to Bill aka Bucky and Jack and get together as a family one of these days soon.
* I hosted Bunko at my house last Wednesday. Each member takes a turn once every 18 months to host. We have been playing for over 15 years now, third Wednesday of the month (except for July and December). It is not a very big time commitment and if I didn't play, I would not see some of these women ever. We had a fun time. Here are a couple of pictures from the night.

rolling

Christy, Elodie, Lynn, Jack and Tamara

Another "See ya later"

Our friends, Lynn and Richard, are moving back to NYC. They were here (having moved here from Lake Tahoe) from about 1998 to 2004, then moved to NYC, then moved back here in 2006ish. Richard works for Hyatt and so they have made many moves in their lives and do it well. They make it look so easy! Lynn told me about the impending move on one of our morning walks in early May and next thing you know, their house is sold! Richard will be in Chicago a bit longer and their daughters, Rachael and Cara (and her husband, John) are living here still. In the meantime, Lynn and Cara are on their way to the East Coast, driving their dog Indy, to their summer home in Rhode Island. Richard and Lynn will move into NYC in the fall. Yesterday Jean and I stopped by to say "see ya later" since Lynn never says good bye. End of an era, but the start of another exciting experience for Lynn and Richard.

I love our neighbors

We have lived in our home for 25 years and for many of those years we have had a funky little street. When we moved in, we were the youngsters on this block of less than ten homes, along with one other young family. There have been many crazy neighbors over the years, some literally! In the last ten years or so, the tear down trend finally hit our street. There are several new homes and several darling young families moved in We are especially fond of Joe and Michelle and their four kids. Today is the first birthday of their daughter, Victoria. Jack and I remember well the night Victoria was born. We waved at Michelle as Joe helped her into the car as they left for the hospital. It was so exciting! We stopped by their house this afternoon to help celebrate Victoria's big day. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were celebrating Sally's first birthday????

Transitioning to My Summer Schedule

Let's just say it takes me a while to adjust to the different pace of summer. Even though I have tons to get done, I find myself napping and relaxing more often than not these first four days of summer break. Luckily, I have some summer work happening tomorrow and hopefully that'll be the jump start I need to get my mojo working.
In the meantime, here is a picture of me and my honey enjoying some relaxation.

School's Out!

That song just keeps running through my head. Love this first evening of summer vacay. Nothing beats it. We grilled some marinated chicken breasts and had a glass of wine on the patio. I have already finished my thank you notes for the end of the year gifts and am just starting to relax. Tomorrow I will start scheduling my summer therapy kids, but for now..."school's out for summer"

The Second Birthday Club Mother-Daughter Bridal Shower

Kathy, Mary B, the bride!, MOB, Teri, Carol and MOG

We had our second bridal shower for a Birthday Club daughter. Jackie, daughter of Mary K,  is getting married to Mark on June 30th and we celebrated that this past Sunday, June 3 (yes, that is Sally's birthday, but she was all about sharing her day with lots of fun women). Teri, Carol, Kathy, and Mary B were the hostesses and it was a beautiful event. We did a group gift again and got Jackie and Mark their gas grill. All they had to do was get it home and put together... :)
Jean, the groom's mother, came to the shower and commented on how nice it was to be with a group of mothers and daughters that have such great relationships with each other. Couldn't agree more!

Jackie and Sally

Bride and Mother of the Bride

Happy birthday, Sally!

I can't believe my baby girl is 24 years old. It was such a marvelous day when Sally came into this world. She was born on a Friday at 12:36 pm, a planned c-section. She was the first granddaughter on my side of the family, after four boys, and folks were happy to be buying some pink stuff for a change! The whole birth experience was so positive. It was the first nice weekend of the year and everyone was in a good mood. Just very positive thoughts and feelings surround that whole time of my life. And it has only gotten better. Sally is such a blessing to our family. Love her to pieces and am so thrilled that God has brought into her life a wonderful man like Matt.

June 3, 1988

June 3, 2012