Dear Reader:

*It happened…March 29, 2019. I was officially released from the Comprehensive Wound Center/East Cooper Hospital Annex after almost six months of treatments! It was bittersweet leaving so many friends behind but I was so ready!

I just have to wear a new compression sock for a few short weeks with a very small bandage to protect the new covering and then I am on my way. Unless a problem arises I do not return to the wound center. No more sixty mile round trips each Friday. The wound is completely healed…but it will take a little time for the outer epidermis to cover this fragile first layer…thus the compression/little bandage for protection.

I walked just a few blocks around the neighborhood upon returning from Mt. Pleasant (where I have been the last two days) as a type of personal celebration. And I was rewarded with so much beauty.

Remember the new bird feeder I was so excited about….well, no more! I have not seen one bird on it…only squirrels swinging back and forth like trapeze artists. So I went to Home Depot and bought some special bird seed (the hot stuff) that birds like and is harmless to them but squirrels do not like and it burns their mouths (supposedly)….only to watch squirrel after squirrel stuffing their faces with it…do you think I have “Latino” squirrels?

Don’t you love these wedding guest environmental “surcies” given by the bride and groom for attending this wedding….bird treats in the shape of hearts? What a perfect gift as a thank you for attending a benchmark moment in two people’s lives.

Jo Dufford sent me some sample stories from a rapidly popular growing news network called “Good News for a Change.” Instead of having to wait until the last three minutes of national broadcasts for something to lift your spirits…this network provides upbeat personal stories of people unselfishly giving to others and making a positive difference in this world.

Some examples Jo Dufford sent me were things like:

1. A middle school implemented a “Breakfast with Dad’s” program but few dad’s arrived…some couldn’t make it because of work hours or shift work…others because there was were no dads in the family unit. So the school called out on Facebook that they needed 50 “volunteer” fathers…600 “Dad’s” from all races and backgrounds showed up

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2. In Barbados every citizen who makes it to a 100 years of age is honored by a postal stamp with their picture on it. So deserving…what a great idea…better than a jar of jelly.

3.  A daughter sent in a picture to the news network explaining that her father sprinkled bird seed in the shape of a heart early each morning and then waited for the birds to arrive so that his wife could see the bird covered shaped heart each and every morning in the court yard…his gift of love to her.

I take “heart” about the sad state of affairs in our country today and in the news when  Ken Burns ( Award-Winning ETV documentary producer) points out that we all must remember that …“The one thing that unites us is our shared history“…courageous ancestors who sacrificed all for a better life in this new country for the next generation. Americans can find grit and backbone in their ancestry for the simple reason that someone in the past made the courageous decision to leave a place they were born in, knew, and loved for a better life for those who would follow.

I wish sometimes I could call back my ancestors to reassure me that we will get through these troubled times like they did…that in the end “It will be alright.” I pray it is for my children and their children’s lives as they go forward in these uncertain times.

In the meantime I am going to offset as much bad news as I can with good news now…stories of people helping people continuing to make America great while re-enforcing that Americans, at heart, are good, kind, generous, accepting people. And that is good news.

Until tomorrow…”In God We Trust.”

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOODLE! THE MATRIARCH OF THE DINGLE CLAN… WHOSE GENEROSITY AND KINDNESS IS ONLY EXCEEDED BY HER LOVE.

One example of this generosity (just recently) was Doodle sending some fun old toys of her now grown daughters to Walsh and Mollie’s children to play with…and they loved them…including Eloise…a slinky, binoculars, GI Joe dolls, a pop-gun…Don’t you love it when toys of the past make as big a hit now as they did then?

Walsh and I took the children out Friday night to the Wando Grill where good old fun continued…hoola-hoops…and the food was great too!

Saturday started early…first with Lachlan getting his yellow(striped) karate belt, then his soccer game, followed by Rutledge’s soccer game…we did it somehow and everyone was a trooper including Eloise because she adores her big brothers…wherever they are…that is where she wants to be.