6/1/07

134) Newsletter Memories

May 31, 2007
Thursday

El Milagro:
On time today and Carol rushes over and cannulates me in about 30 seconds flat! This place is hopping today. I turn in my final copy of the first “El Milagro News”, a newsletter that I’ve taken over from the volunteer who didn’t complete it in April. This is a product of the new Patient Advisory Committee (PAC), which I volunteered to sit on. I didn’t really want to do the newsletter but I do want one to exist and, as with many things in life, if you want them done right you must do them yourself. So, the newsletter looks pretty good and is a start.

I am remembering the copies of a newsletter my mom created on shipboard as one of the first Army wives to be transported to Europe at the close of the big war. These were copied into the appendix of the book my dad constructed of my mom's letters home during that period. Having read them and then created my own newsletter for the center, I have the sense that the experience is somewhat congruent. I hallucinate that I can imagine what it was like for her to be writing her newsletter on the high seas. And that gives me a smile, thinking that I somehow get closer to her by doing things she did. As a kid it was always like that for me. We spent summers at her family’s cottage on a lake in central Michigan and as I was growing up I compared my experiences to hers as a youth at the same cottage. She picked wild blueberries and I picked wild blueberries. She ran in corn fields and ate fresh corn off the stalk and my cousin and I did the same. She learned to row the boat to the end of the lake to hunt for turtles and then I did that too one summer. She swam the lake behind her dad rowing the boat, and I swam the lake behind her rowing the boat… and, maybe it was the same boat. So, now when I am creating a newsletter, I feel like I can relive her experiences writing a newsletter. That is an unexpected benefit that I can be thankful for while taking over this PAC task. Now that I'm doing it I want to see it grow and develop into a useful tome.

A new female doc comes by to do rounds and I pay little attention. I’m still miffed about the Moritz off my case thing. I don’t want to talk to new docs… I just like my old cranky obnoxious Moritz. That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it!

Notes: In at 74.2 and out at 72.3 Kgs.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Jack - one more reason we connect - perhaps. I, too, spent time on lake Michigan with my family at our home near Pentwater or at our cousins house. Walking the dunes, sailing in our little boat, watching the men fish off the jetty, picking asperagus, and eating fresh corn and blueberries we bought at rode side stands. It was a grand time - and I loved living it with you as I read this entry. Love you!!!! Gracie