My Niece

is 57 years old and is newly diagnosed with cancer. It is in her lungs and brain. She has started radiation and will follow with chemotherapy. She is being treated as an outpatient. What concerns me is that she lives far away from any of her family and there is no one to take care of her during the radiation and chemo and afterwards. Her husband has CHF and is in poor health himself. I suggested that she come to MD Anderson here in Houston for treatment but she adamantly opposed this. Since I can't go there and she won't come here, I am thinking of seeing if she will let me hire a home health assistant to come to her home a couple of hours a day.

Families can be complicated

My DH is the oldest of 5 boys. Yesterday Brother #2 hosted the annual family fish fry. Brother #3 has boycotted the rest of the family for years and yesterday was no exception; however, his ex-wife was there with their 2 children and grandchildren and it was great--we always preferred her over him anyway... There were 50+ people there and it was just a pleasant evening of reminiscing and laughing about trying to figure out who was related to whom. The longest marriage there was 56 years and the youngest child there was 3. The food was terrific--I never made it to the actual fried fish because I couldn't get enough of SIL #2's gumbo. I brought my Chocolate-Chocolate cake. There was a whole table of desserts and a table of salads--potato, corn, cabbage. Very nice evening indeed.

The only one who remembers

Both my parents died 30+ years ago and my Aunt who was the last of her generation died last May. My oldest brother died 5 years ago. I have a half-brother who is more or less the family ne'r-do-well still living but we have not been in touch for many years. I have the oddest feeling of wanting to see him only because he is the only one who remembers the old days, who remembers the people and the houses and the times. I don't suppose I will but it is so odd to know that no one remembers. Has anyone else experienced this?