These friends of mine

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them to your heart with hoops of steel –

 

The question is, how can I keep the connections alive when I am unable  to do the reaching out?  I seldom drive any more, and then it is very limited distances.  My husband is my chauffeur, especially at night.  So the thing is, yes, this cancer has limited me.  One way or another, my friends must come to me.

 

I remember how I used to feel about cancer patients, even when they had been close friends of mine – I was afraid of them!  “How can I be with a person I know is going to die?”  Denial and avoidance!  How wrongheaded I was.  I deprived both myself and my friend of some rich moments together. 

 

I have had cancer for a year now, and I do not feel about to die!  Let’s focus on the things I still can do --  I can go out to lunch, or to a lawn concert or museum.  I have a wheel chair for trips out.  I am happy to have visitors to my house (especially if they bring lunch), to sit on my wonderful porch and talk.  When I tire, I say so.

 

One of my Monroeville friends, a woman I worked with at WPSD, uses the distance between us as an excuse to use visits to me as an outing for her 90+ yr old mother.  I have known her mother for many years, and feel very comfortable to have her included.

 

Two friends opened their house for a pot-luck party, for those who had not seen me in many months.  Now they could see me with hair!  It was a wonderful party, but eventually I tired. 

 

And let’s not ignore the internet.  Several friends are expert at gathering interesting, cute pictures that they forward to me.  Uplifting.  And I know they are thinking of me.  (my email address, by the way, is:   tcomden@mindspring.com

 

So this blog is an invitation to my friends to come – call before you come – we both are happy to see you.  I will start treatment next week, one week of treatment, two off.  This will go on well into the fall.  Off weeks are better.