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Posts Tagged ‘grandparents’

Mother/Daughter Mammograms

Posted in Journal Entries, Misc, tagged , , on June 13, 2010| 2 Comments »

June 11 was Grammy’s birthday (my mom’s mother). She would have been 103.

Mom and I “celebrated” Grammy’s birthday by going for our mammograms together. It’s been 13 years since Mom was treated for breast cancer.  Thankfully, she’s been cancer-free since then! She’s also been very good about going annually for her mammograms and follow-up visits.

I had my last mammogram about five years ago when I still lived in the Keys. Now that I’m on the “other side” of my colon cancer treatment, my oncologist, Dr. Fekrazad, has given me a plan for follow-up care that includes having a mammogram, a colonoscopy and a CT scan this summer. So, on Friday, I knocked off the easiest one on the list!

It seems mammogram technology has changed pretty dramatically since my last one. They’re almost all done digitally now. The technician at Santa Fe Imaging, where Mom and I went, told me they would be comparing these digital images with my previous film images and, more likely than not, they would be able to see much more than the film mammograms did. She cautioned me not to get jumpy if they should call me to come back in after they compare the new images to the old ones. She said if that happens it’s probably just because they’re able to see more “stuff” that they can’t compare to the old films. And, since I now have a history of cancer, they’re going to be extra cautious about anything they see.

The beautiful pink rosebush in my garden popped out its first blooms of the year just a week ago!

So, I’ll be sure to provide an update once Mom and I get our results back. I’m confident we’re both going to get good reports.

Since I’ll probably have to start going for annual mammograms like Mom does, don’t you think it would be a nice tradition for us to go for them together on Grammy’s birthday each year?

And, it sure isn’t lost on me what a beautiful thing it is that Mom and I are both here, and able to refer to our future in terms of “years.”  I’m so truly grateful for this wonderful gift we’ve both been given!

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Tribute

Posted in Journal Entries, tagged , , on April 4, 2010| 4 Comments »

Today would have been the 79th wedding anniversary of my maternal grandparents, Ruth Cole and Vernon Wertz. They were married on April 4, 1931 in Washington, D.C. with only one other couple present (“to stand up for them” as Grammy would say) in a church filled with Easter lilies in preparation for the next day’s Easter service.

Ruth and Vernon Wertz

Grammy told me this story on a few occasions: She and my granddad were both from Nebraska. He actually courted her sister for a brief time before moving to Washington, D.C. to take a position with the government (it was the Depression and jobs were scarce, so he went where there were some). He and Grammy began corresponding by mail. I suppose it was a form of “dating” as she eventually agreed to marry him. She took the train from Nebraska to D.C., traveling for several days before arriving at what would become her home for the rest of her life.

Granddad had found a church for them to be married in and talked a couple he hardly knew into being their witnesses. Grammy would always tell the next part of the story with tears of delight: she was thrilled to find the church beautifully decorated with lilies and other flowers for the coming Easter service, but she secretly felt as if it was decorated just for her wedding.

After the ceremony, they celebrated by going to see a movie with the couple who had just “stood up for them.”

They celebrated 51 years of marriage together before my grandfather died. Grammy lived another nine years, passing away in her sleep on the eve of what would have been their 60th anniversary. (I believe she had a date with Granddad to spend their 60th together.)

So, today, on their 79th anniversary, I celebrate them for all the ways they contributed to who I am: jewelry-maker, gardener, girl scout, bird-watcher, artist, poor cook, traveler, flea market scavenger, collector of far too much stuff, and lover of life.

Thank you, Ruth and Vernon, for being my grandparents. Happy Anniversary.

My grandparents and the clock that lived on their fireplace mantel (still ticking all these years later...)

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