Dear Reader:

I remember hearing a reporter make a statement, recently, that after 9/11 we never looked at a fireman the same way. After this pandemic ends, we will never look at our medical personnel, doctors, nurses, researchers, and all various forms of medical assistants, the same way either. How true that statement is! They are our heroes!

I want to give a personal shout-out to the nurse who personally held my hand and got me through several series of chemotherapy. Without Linda Carson (my oncology nurse)...there was the potential of ambiguous paths that might have followed without the same fortunate results.

Linda’s word of the year should always be “SMILE.” She has the sweetest smile I have ever seen and the most compassionate thoughtful expression that fills her face around this smile. God gave me the perfect oncology nurse…she was and will always be a guardian angel to me.

Linda taught me how to look on chemotherapy, not as something harmful to me or scary, but as a giant ally fighting hard to knock down “little c” and keep it penned in so I could keep living my life. It worked.

Twelve years later…I still am taking oral chemo and hormone pills… but I am also able to continue living my life, writing my blog. and loving every breath I take.

*My favorite gift from Linda was a pillow I still have and love that reads “Choose Happy!

During my first round of chemo (started in the summer) Mandy and little Eva Cate would go with me on various occasions when Brookie wasn’t there…we always took Linda flowers…she deserved so much more but they added color to the chemo treatment room. *And besides Linda always made sure that there was a cherry and orange tootsie roll pop…one for me…one for Eva Cate!

This year, particularly, I think there is a greater respect and admiration for teachers than ever before.

There have probably been more cartoons depicting frustrated home-schooling parents than any other type of cartoon.

“It ain’t easy.”

It is true what they say about the teaching profession…it is the hardest thing you will ever love…and it is not for the weak of heart.

I loved it but teaching 13-year-olds can be challenging…I realized one day recently I have lived most of my life in a crazy harmone world…First teaching students go through puberty and  later me going through breast cancer with harmone therapies galore. Welcome to my “harmonious” world! 🙂

I am proud of my daughter Mandy who is an art teacher in a downtown Charleston school and my niece Carrie…a speech therapist in Dorchester Two school district. Both are wonderfully amazing educators!

One year in May (many years ago) the Charleston Post and Courier newspaper called and asked if I would write a little “ditty” for Teacher Appreciation Week. I wrote a poem and it went like this:

Why I Teach?

“Why do you teach? I was asked one day. There are so many problems and so little pay.”

The question was simple…so why couldn’t I…Think of an answer…an instant reply.

I had taught for years, but never taken the time…To look within me…to answer this rhyme.

It was then that it happened…Like a flash in the night…I knew why I taught…to me it FELT RIGHT.

It felt right to tell a story and see students’ eyes now shine…to feel a link in the classroom …as friendships began to bind.

It felt right to give back knowledge…that someone had given me-“What goes around, comes around” …we share from the learning tree.

It felt right to watch a child, help another struggle to learn…Who once was teased and bullied… but now had someone… with whom to turn.

It felt right to hold the future…and mold it in my hand-Knowing this clay might make…the next leaders of our land.

It felt right to let them go…and take life’s journey on their own- Knowing  I had planted the seeds that one day would be sown.

So why do I teach?…I was asked one day. Because I can’t imagine life…spent in any other way.”

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So until tomorrow….My love and admiration goes out to our front-line nurses and our front-line teachers. The world couldn’t turn without either. Today Thank a teacher….today….Thank a nurse!

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Exciting news… Walsh and Mollie’s family plus sister Chelsey and Pajak’s family (the cousins) went to Bull’s Island…an environmental island filled with all kind of diverse vegetation and …. and perhaps whales’ backbones!!!

They are going to check with the SC Aquarium and find out more but while strolling on the beach…this piece of an animal’s vertebrae was discovered and the kids were so excited…as was the rest of the family when they sent these pictures!

A sign for my gate arrived yesterday and I was so excited! My Orange Trumpet vine reappeared…such beautiful blooms.