Saturday, December 17, 2022
Elaine Hancock: My Perfect Godmother Died Last Night
Tuesday, December 13, 2022
Remembering Mom: Meeting Loren Hancock
Sunday, December 11, 2022
Remembering Mom: Her First Mother's Day in Heaven
David was born in December of 1964 and died in March of 1965 at three-and-a-half months old. I cannot imagine how much pain Mom must have felt that first Mother's Day without him. She never lost the grief of losing him. Some of my most vivid memories of Mom are walking with her over the uneven ground in Lullaby Land so she could place flowers on his grave.
At first, she would go on the anniversaries of his birth and death, plus Memorial Day, which is really close to her birthday. Dad honored and adopted the tradition until his death in 1992.
Wednesday, November 30, 2022
Lying, Sabotaging, and Communicating Passively Aggressively, or How the Family Came Unglued
A memory from four years ago that popped up on Facebook today was a post I made in response to my younger sister's passive aggressive message that had been sent that morning.
To put it into perspective, Mom had moved in with her in March of that year. In addition to her realizing that I had been telling the truth that taking care of Mom was more of a job than it was a joy, she was also dealing with the "unforeseeable emergency" that everything that wasn't dealt with at Mom's house when it might have been, had to be dealt with then when there were other things that needed to also be dealt with, like taking care of Mom.
Friday, November 25, 2022
Starting a Tradition of Self Care
Saturday, November 19, 2022
Remembering Mom: She was Always 29
She wasn't vain about her age. She just needed to be younger than her mother, Dobie, who always claimed to be 39 years old.
Saturday, November 12, 2022
My Deal with Elliana
That is some tremendous weight to carry. However, it is a weight that she carries because of her behavior.
How Elliana and I Got Where We Are Through OUR Bad Decisions
Friday, November 11, 2022
My Baby is Out of Time
I was her favorite person in the world when she was a baby. People had already started gathering at her first birthday party by the time I arrived. Once Elliana saw me, she put her arms out to let me know that it was time to hold her. If someone else wanted to hold her after that, she would let them for a minute or two before letting me know that she wanted to be with me again. As I said, there was a connection between us that I never felt with anyone else.
Thursday, November 10, 2022
Giving Up My Favorite Prejudice Ever
Saturday, October 22, 2022
Jezebel (2013-2022)
We brought her home the day before Mr. Grumpy showed up from his week-long hiatus. Along with Prancer, we then had three cats. They got along well with Prancer recognized as the elder and Jezebel acting as a benevolent guardian, a role fitted to her because of how large she was. Grumpy never challenged either of them, accepting his role as the clumsy little brother.
Charlie Cakes (2013-2022)
Monday, June 29, 2020
Remembering Mom: Finding Her on the Floor
I wanted to call 911 on the spot, but she convinced me to call Maureen to help instead. She assured me that she had laid there for several hours, so another little bit wouldn't hurt more. She did not want the medics coming in to deal with her soiled and dirty. I called Maureen, told her we had an emergency, and went to help Mom a bit in the five minutes or so that it took Maureen to arrive.
Saturday, May 16, 2020
Remembering Mom: If Her Services Had Been About Her
To be fair, the job of speaking at her service was offered to me before the minister was hired. I declined. I had the experience speaking at Dad's service. Besides not having practiced public speaking for almost two decades, Mom never asked me to do her service. Dad did. There were points during his service that, if I had broken down, I probably could not have recovered. I was practiced in those days. To that end, it is as much my fault as anyone else's that Mom's services turned into a sermon like at a church service.
Monday, May 4, 2020
Yvonne Koecke (1935-2020): Third Eerie Premonition About Death Came True
Mom was born on May 31st, 1935, in Leith, North Dakota. Her parents, Roy "Clair" and Dorothy Kamrath packed everything up that July and moved to Oregon with their oldest child.
She told us tales about growing up in the logging camps, and various homes and farms, as her father moved the family seeking regular work during the Great Depression. The family would grow with Clarence, Bill, and Eileen added to the pack. Pa, as we used to call him, found regular employment with Oregon State College in Corvallis, and the family settled into its permanent home.
Thursday, March 19, 2020
You Hold Him Down; I'll Tie It To Him
Dean and Bob joined us on the mushroom adventure. We went to the new Stadium Bowl that got washed away. We got what we needed and got out of there so we wouldn't get caught with our haul. It was off to J Street where we added 'shrooms to some cheap frozen pizza and made some terrible tasting tea. We weren't after the taste, and soon we were tripping.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
Remembering Dad: His Magic Garage
Despite his thousands of books, hundreds of cameras, and dozens of silent movies, his grandchildren loved his magic garage most! He had various sets up in the rafters that depicted different holidays or scenes of Americana. It was all controlled by a box with about two dozen plugs and switches wired into a framework that was about 12 inches by 18 inches and built from 2X4s. It worked, and also probably frightened any electrician who ever saw it!
Saturday, December 28, 2019
My Daughter's Wife
Her wife doesn't need to be the center of attention, and she doesn't need to use some really tough experiences in her life to explain abnormal behavior. Rather, she uses her experiences to imagine how others must feel in their circumstances. She has a healthy ego, but she also has a lot of empathy. She has a keen awareness about herself. She listens to learn rather than to know what memorized response is appropriate.
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Firing My Shrink
I can't disagree with them that it seems like a type of insanity; however, if it is insanity, I have been insane for as long as I can remember. For example, I was fairly adept at dividing large numbers by the time we learned long division in school. There was no way for me to calculate earned run averages for the pitchers on our make-believe teams without that. When Mr. Reed was showing us the proper way to divide big numbers in eighth grade, I told him about the method I figured out years earlier that also worked. He challenged me on that. I proved it to him.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Cousin Lee Died Today
Lee's father, Garth, was the brother of my father, Wayne. They lived on five acres not too far from Rogers High School. It was always cool going out to Uncle Garth and Aunt Dellora's home. There were farm animals, abandoned cars, and even a part-time swamp way in the back. We were allowed to roam. I have no idea what our parents thought we were doing, but they would not have approved of much of what we actually did!