The PALM tree room

In early 1993, my first husband moved out. In the spring my dad died and that fall my sister was diagnosed with cancer. Can you say “stressful”? I’d rather say it just all stunk. Two good things came of that year. Pebbles and Bam-bam came home to live and in the summer my sister Pat and I started to finish my basement.

I had a computer sitting upstairs on a table in the living room. Pat and I were both writing then, and I longed for an office of my own. We came up with the brainstorm that she and I would build two rooms in my unfinished basement, a playroom for the kids and an office for me.

I remember that first day. We worked for hours and then looked around and it didn’t seem like we had accomplished anything, maybe a few sheets of drywall were up. We looked at each other and said in unison, “Dairy Queen”.

Somehow we got the office finished. Nearly. I mean it sure wasn’t perfect, but I was happy. The playroom, on the other hand, well it’s my husband’s man-cave now, so it is perfect for him. 

 This picture was from 2011 when I was actually doing most of my writing upstairs at the dining room table. I had just cleaned up the old office and made it my craft room - as if I craft.

 Here's the office in the basement, being used as an office. It is where all of the edits on my book took place.

 Here it is a nearly empty room. The desk was moved upstairs to Val's old bedroom. So what did this room become?

Well, Val's bedroom, of course. And where did the palm tree theme come from? In 2000, a year after Pat died, I started a Relay for Life team in her honor. Her initials spell PAL, so add an M for memorial and you have the PALM team. Over the years, I collected a few palm trees which we decorated our Relay for Life campsite with. What a better place for these PALMs to reside now.

"I Know You"

Yesterday I was in Green Bay for a seminar to earn CEUs in my field of medical assisting. We listened to four wonderful speakers on three interesting topics (the fourth topic – OSHA regulations – not so interesting, but the speaker was still good).

The last presenter of the day spoke on Alzheimer’s Disease. What a devastating illness that is! Not one of us has not had a family member affected by it. One of the slides this speaker shared showed a cross-section of a normal brain and compared it to that of an Alzheimer’s victim.

I borrowed this picture from the internet, but it is just as clear to see that the brain on the right has wasted away, practically collapsing on itself. It is easy to understand why these men and women get to the point where they can no longer feed themselves, talk, or walk.

In April of 1993, we admitted my dad to an Alzheimer’s unit of the nursing home. The last thing he said to me was, “You are someone I should know.” A few days later he was hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia and passed away by the end of the week.

Why would a loving God let a disease such as this take over the minds of our elderly, our loved ones who only want to live out their lives in peace and happiness? I don’t know. But I do know this. Someday I will be with my dad in heaven and he will say to me, “I know you!” And even better than that, my heavenly Father will say that to me too.

“Do not be afraid—I will save you. I have called you by name—you are mine. When you pass through deep waters, I will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you. For I am the Lord your God.” Isaiah 43:1-3 Good News Translation