2026 Life Logs, Day 126: Onward
Date: Wednesday, May 6, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Rain in the PM; High Temp 65, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

In the past five weeks, I have spent more time than I care to even think about, dealing with my sister’s healthcare situation. It has been frustrating, discouraging, and totally maddening at times, but there have also been bright spots. Doctors on call at a hospital who took the time to call me to update me and to tell me my sister has an amazing ability to rebound. She went into the hospital with double pneumonia, Covid, an insanely high sugar count, and an extremely low oxygen level. Three days later, at 92 years and 9 months old, she was rebounding. I talked on the phone daily to people from doctors to people dealing with palliative care. I read her My Chart continually to check her blood sugar levels, her white blood cell count, and a myriad of other tests. I learned to understand how to interpret a chest x-ray. A week later she went to rehab, and there I had to learn to talk to another whole group of people. Physical therapists occupational therapists, social case workers. Then after two weeks in rehab, she was ready to go back home to her assisted living situation. All of a sudden, there was no one to talk to. From last Friday to today, I have struggled mightily with communication with the med tech staff where she lives. But I am hopeful that I have finally found a path going forward. I am not sure any of this would have been easier if I were there in person because almost all of the communication is via text, email, or phone. It has taken a chunk of my life, but here’s hoping I don’t have to talk to anyone other than her physical therapist who texts me with updates for the foreseeable future. I am going to officially close this chapter right now.

Because of all the time I have spent overseeing Patsy’s healthcare for 5 weeks, I am more than a wee bit behind on other responsibilities. But I’ll get there. Heather’s new podcast was launched in the middle of this medical mess, but tonight I watched two of the four podcasts she has out there so far. Wow! I know she is good at whatever she attempts to do, and this new venture is no different. She is a great interviewer and the information I have learned from just two episodes is huge. More on this tomorrow night after I listen to the other two episodes. If you haven’t watched one yet, I highly recommend you do so. Just Google ‘Not a Climate Scientist’. I watched on YouTube.

2026 Life Logs, Day 125: Happy Cinco de Mayo
Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny and Warmer; High Temp 60, Low 53 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

A message from Sam last night that his flight to Seattle went smoothly and that he was in the car with his friend Ethan and Ethan’s dog Cosmo, headed out on to the Olympic Peninsula. Happy travels to Sam, Ethan, and Cosmo.

A call this morning from my neighbor Andy who left yesterday morning for a cross-country trip to California and back. He got as far as Washington, Pennsylvania last night, and called this morning to say that the news about the war in Iran and gas prices in Pennsylvania had changed his mind. He is going to do a little trek down through West Virginia, maybe as far as South Carolina, and then head home.

Another day on the phone dealing with my sister’s healthcare, but not surprisingly, no call back yet from Terra Bella in response to my very long email of complaint on Sunday. My sister is fine, but if I do not hear back from Terra Bella tomorrow, I have to decide what action I will take next.

Then tonight, I put all of that behind me and went to a Cinco de Mayo celebration with my wine group. It was great to be with friends and think about nothing other than enjoying time with friends for a couple of hours.

2026 Life Logs, Day 124: Sisters, Sisters
Date: Monday, May 4, 2026
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Windy; High Temp 58, Low 50 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

This was one of those days when the Irving Berlin song, “Sisters, Sisters” made popular in the movie White Christmas, kept reeling though my mind. This was day four of having to spend all of my energy dealing with my sister Patsy’s health issues. In the song, the words say, “Lord help the mister, that comes between me and my sister.” Take out the word ‘mister’ and put in ‘incompetent people’ and you have the song I was singing today. Finally, yesterday, the senior living facility where she lives started giving her the insulin she needs. But today I got a text from her paid companion saying that they waited until Patsy was seated for lunch and then came in and got her and took her to the med tech station to inject the insulin. The med tech doing this then turned to Patsy’s companion, who has not one ounce of medical training, and asked her where she should give the injection. Oh, my. And I still have not heard back from the administrative staff in response to my very long email of yesterday. My nephew who lives near enough to Patsy to help out when needed was on a flight to Miami this afternoon, and in flight, he was researching to whom in North Carolina you report this kind of negligence. It is the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that regulates assisted living/nursing home facilities. But Patsy lives in a senior living community that offers Independent Senior Living, Senior Assisted Living, and a Memory Care program. Now I have to switch to lawyer mode to figure out who does regulate this place. In the meantime, I have this one photo of me with my two older sisters that keeps me grounded. My oldest sister was born in 1928 and died in 2005, my sister Patsy was born in 1933, and then I came along 14 years later in 1947. I was never friends with my sisters because of the age difference, but family is family. Patsy’s husband died in 2019, her oldest daughter died in 2022, and her youngest daughter lives in an assisted-living memory care facility in Ohio. She suffers from post cortical atrophy, a rare form of Alzheimer’s. And our brothers died long ago. Patsy and I are what is left of my immediate family. So, I will battle on because we are family.

2026 Life Logs, Day 123: Send-off Dinner for Sam
Date: Sunday, May 3, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy; High Temp 55, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My morning and early afternoon were spent continuing to deal with my sister’s return home from the rehab on Friday. Since she returned, I have been unable to talk to anyone on the med tech staff to see if she is receiving the newly prescribed glucose for other diabetes. Finally, at 8:30 am this morning I talked to a real person instead of an answering machine and found out that indeed, she has not been getting the glucose injections as prescribed. They have the meds, but no one ordered a test kit so it couldn’t be administered. But also, no one let her doctor or me or anyone know that a test kit was needed. I wrote an email to the administrative staff detailing all of the attempts by me and by my sister’s primary care nurses to reach someone on the assisted living staff since Friday at noon. When I printed out the email, it was 3 full pages long! I have spent a lot of time on hold at Terra Bella this weekend and every time I hear a man saying, “Visit us at Terra Bella, a retirement community with a country-club like atmosphere.” If this kind of service is country-club like, then put me in the poor house.

This evening I went to Heather and Jed’s for a farewell dinner for Sam. I know. He just got home on Friday, but he is off to Seattle tomorrow to meet up with a friend and head across the country, cowboy camping along the way. I had to ask for a definition of ‘cowboy camping’. It just means tucking into your sleeping bag on bare ground under the canopy of stars. Sam and Ethan are both 19. Youth is on their side, and I’m sure they will be fine. But I suggested Sam at least take a camp pad! However they decide to sleep, I just hope they have a wonderful trek across this country “from sea to shining sea.”.

2026 Life Logs, Day 122: Hats and Horses
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2026
Weather: Overcast, Some Rain; High Temp 57, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My saga with my sister continued today. I continue to try and talk to someone on the medical staff and all I can do is leave messages that don’t get returned. More on that tomorrow. But this evening, I changed gears and attended Encore’s spring social. This year it was called Hats and Horses, a theme built around this evening’s Kentucky Derby. We wore our crazy hats and we cheered on our horses of choice. The horse I chose, So Happy, didn’t win, but he ran a good race. And I enjoyed the evening.

2026 Life Logs, Day 121: May Day Telephone Game
Date: Friday, May 1, 2026
Weather: Sunny, Windy PM; High Temp 59, Low 46 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

My morning went great. Shadow to the groomer, phone call to the rehab and message to my sister’s son-in-law Bill to make sure everything was on track for her move back to her apartment at 11 am, on to my Friday class on the U.S. Constitution, and then to a noontime May Day protest. Just as the speeches started at 12:20, my phone rang and I answered because it was from my sister’s primary care. As I think back on the afternoon beyond that point, the whole situation seems unreal. I won’t bore you with the details, but the first call was to check with me as to why my sister’s transfer from rehab was not happening today. Really? I Just got a text saying she was in her apartment eating a sandwich from Panera. But since the med office where my sister lives had just told her doctor’s nurse that she was not returning today, I called to find out why that call was made. And then I was told that they didn’t have her new prescription list which includes much needed insulin. That launched an entire afternoon of playing the telephone game. The saga is still continuing, but I can do nothing more until morning when I can call to see if the insulin arrived and is being administered.

After I picked Shadow up from the groomer late this afternoon, I took him over to see Sam. It was really just my excuse to see Sam, but Sam and Shadow love each other. Sam took him for a long walk while I went shopping. I loved seeing my boys together!

2026 Life Logs, Day 120: Sam is Home and Jazz is Alive on CC
Date: Thursday, April 30, 2026
Weather: Mostly Cloudy, Some Rain; High Temp 56, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Today was all about Sam and Jonah. The Sam part is that Sam got home from the Netherlands this afternoon!!! He is only here until Monday morning when he flies to Seattle to meet up with a friend and drive back across the country with him. But I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to give him a great big welcome home hug. Heather drove to Boston to pick him up. She sent a picture labeling it, “Proof of Life.”

His flight from Paris went without a hitch, but since Monday when he left Groningen, he has been traveling with a 6-foot-long snowboard bag packed with 60 pounds of ‘stuff’, plus two backpacks and another big bag. He is exhausted, but after a good night’s sleep, he’ll be fine.

The Jonah part of the day was driving with Jed (Heather stayed home with Sam and Ollie) to the Outer Cape to Nauset High School to attend the All-Cape Jazz 2026 Concert tonight. Jazz band students on the Cape go through tryouts and those who are selected come together for two days with guest conductors. With 12 hours of practice with two different guest conductors, a small Cape Jazz Combo performs, as well as the All-Cape Jazz BIG Band.

It is a huge commitment, as the kids miss two full days of school and have to travel from each day from all parts of Cape Cod. But the result was spectacular this year. Jonah played trombone in the big band.

There were 5 saxophone players (2 from Falmouth), 4 on trumpet (1 from Falmouth), 4 on trombone (2 from Falmouth), 2 on drums, and 1 each on piano, guitar, bass, and vibraphone (from Falmouth), plus 1 vocalist. There were also 2 students from Falmouth, out of 6 total, in the Jazz Combo, a drummer and bass player). The big band guest director this year was Dan Gable. In the Boston Globe, he has been hailed as, “the real deal, [a bandleader], that looks and sounds like the 1940’s.” He is a champion of big bands and vintage jazz and shared his passion with the students over the two days. Tonight the 20 students who had never played together until yesterday, performed songs from the Big Band Era like Take it Jackson by Vaughn Monroe, Roll ‘Em by Mary Lou Williams and Benny Goodman, and a World War II song with words you might remember … “Kiss me once, and kiss me twice, and kiss me once again … It’s been a long, long time.” What a wonderful experience for these kids.

2026 Life Logs, Day 119: Keep on Walkin’, Keep on Talkin’
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Weather: Mix of Sun and Clouds, Windy; High Temp 56, Low 45 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round,
turn me ’round, turn me ’round,
Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ’round,
I’m gonna keep on a walkin’, keep on a-talkin’,
Marching up to freedom land.

That’s my anthem for today. The Supreme Court 6-3 decision today weakening, some say gutting, the 1965, long fought for, Voting Rights Act is heartbreaking. But tonight, as Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia quoted from Martin Luther King, we have to hold onto hope over darkness. So I ain’t gonna let nobody turn me ‘round. I’ll keep on doing everything I can to help in the process of turning this mess we are in around.

Tonight was the League of Women Voters Local Candidates’ Night. It is a wonderful opportunity to meet the candidates for local office, the Select Board, the School Committee, and the Planning Board, and listen as they answer questions. Seeing them up-close and personal reveals a lot. It was tonight, and always is, a very worthwhile event.

The rest of my day was spent dealing with my sister’s situation. I had to deal with the 26-page Care Plan I was sent from the Director of Health where she lives. She visited Patsy on Tuesday and did a new assessment. Her care plan assesses her daily needs with a point system. She has gone from 84 points in January to 144. That is a huge increase, and I will have to have further meetings to discuss this before I sign off.

2026 Life Logs, Day 118: Website Handoff
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Weather: Another Gorgeous, Sunny Day; High Temp 56, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

I titled this log ‘Website Handoff’, but maybe it should have been ‘Taking Back a Little Piece of My Life’. I have definitely over committed my time to volunteer work to the point that I barely have time to eat or sleep properly. But finally, I am slowly finding ways to get back little pieces of time. I love being busy, but not as busy as I have been the past 8 months. It was last summer when I realized that I had to get deeply involved in fighting for our democracy, This was something I could not allow myself to watch from the sidelines. I was already on the Encore Board as Co-President moving to VP of Programs, Treasurer of the Board of Library Trustees, a new member of the Falmouth Immigrant Rights Coalition serving on the Media Committee, co-leader of two very active Newcomers/Encore activities, and first and foremost, an on-call Oma for my grandkids. Then Indivisible Falmouth was formed, and I became deeply involved serving as a member of the Steering Committee. As things got busier and busier, it became evident to me that my grandchildren and Indivisible Falmouth are where I want to put my energy. But I couldn’t just quit the other things. So, as I can, I am handing off responsibilities. My time on the Encore Board will end the middle of June and that will give me back a huge chunk of time. And today I handed off the responsibility of the Indivisible Falmouth website to another member of the Steering Committee. I got involved with the website because I volunteered Justin to build the site for us. He will remain the webmaster, but someone who knows more about technology than I do is taking over the day-to-day responsibilities. This doesn’t give me back a lot of time as I really didn’t spend much time doing the job. But I spent a huge amount of time worrying about the fact that I didn’t have the time to learn to do the job. I will still communicate with Justin when we need help, but knowing I am not responsible is like lifting a huge weight off my shoulders.

And then there is the responsibility I bear for my sister’s health care. Of course, I will continue to do this. There are weeks when there is little to do, but the past three weeks have been intense. Today, however, it looks like she will be leaving the rehab and going back to her apartment at Terra Bella Lake Norman on Friday. I spent more time on the phone yesterday during the Boston field trip talking on the phone to make these arrangements than I did listening to the tour guide. But it was still a great trip. Patsy has made an amazing recovery from double pneumonia and Covid. She is still struggling with fluctuating blood sugar numbers, but her primary care can deal with that when she is back in her own apartment. I think just being at home will help. I have spent countless hours on the phone for the past three weeks talking to doctors, to nurses, to her paid companions, to physical therapists, and on and on. If all goes smoothly between now and Friday, I will be so happy to have her back at home. Dealing with the staff at Terra Bella is not easy, but in the past three weeks, I have learned that dealing with the devil you know is way easier than dealing with the devil you don’t know.

One last piece of good news. My grandson Sam left the Netherlands yesterday and headed to Paris. He will fly home from there on Thursday!!! He is spending tomorrow doing a tour of Normandy and then spends Thursday flying home. It will be so wonderful to have him back on this side of the pond.

2026 Life Logs, Day 117: Walking (and riding) the Freedom Trail
Date: Monday, April 27, 2026
Weather: Gorgeous, Sunny Day; High Temp 58, Low 41 degrees F (Boston)
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA

What a gorgeous spring day. I spent my day in Boston where the temperature neared 60 degrees F, but back home here in Falmouth it was 62 degrees. Tomorrow looks like more of the same, so enjoy the warmth and sunshine while you can.

I went with the Newcomers and Encore field trip group to Boston today to walk the downtown portion of the Freedom Trail. We had a terrific guide posing as the Irish wife of Richard Copley, Mary Singleton, whom Richard Copley brought to this country in the 1730’s. He died in 1738, and Mary remarried a Boston artist named Henry Pelham who was a Boston painter, engraver, civil engineer, and cartographer. Her son from the first marriage to Richard Copley, John Singleton Copley, became an artist like his step-father. But John Singleton Copley became a renowned American portrait painter. Copley Square in Boston is named for him.

So, we had a gorgeous, warm day and a fantastic guide. All of us were very familiar with the places we visited along the Freedom Trail, but our guide brought history to life for us. When we got to the Old City Hall behind King’s Church, our guide positioned herself beside a bronze statue of an adorable donkey. She didn’t talk about the donkey, but I became fascinated with the statue and looked up its history. The donkey was bought in Florence. Italy, in the 1990’s by a man from Boston named Roger Webb. He saw it when browsing in a Florence art store filled with statues for anyone hoping to take a piece of Italy home with them. He thought the donkey was so cute and lovable that it belonged somewhere special in Boston. He thought of the Freedom Trail because he thought it would be a fun distraction for children accompanying their parents on the walking tour. He wanted it placed in front of the Old City Hall using the excuse that the donkey represented the Democratic Party—the party of affiliation of many Boston mayors. At first this was rejected, but he finally got his way. Children do love it, and today I decided I loved it enough that I climbed up on its back just as many children do. That was definitely the highlight of the tour for me, bearing out the fact that I am still just a kid at heart.