Just Stuff.....

Our neighborhood in the morning.Blood test - check
CT Scan - check
X-ray - check

A week from today DH has an appointment with his surgeon to go over the test results.

Tomorrow is DD's last day on her part-time job. She is taking a week off and March 17th starts a new full-time job with the city. After six weeks of training she will become a bus driver! She had to get a class B learner's permit before she could start classes and jumped that hurdle over a week ago. She is sooooo excited. This is a job she has wanted for a long time and the benefits are fantastic. Next - getting a place of her own where she can live with both of her boys. We're all ready!

Fait Accompli!

Birth dad and me, three months old. Mother and Dad, Christmas Medicare: signed, sealed and about to be delivered three months from now.

I was apprehensive about meeting with SSA today. When mother divorced my birth dad and married again she changed our last names to his without him ever adopting us. Since I was never adopted I had no legal papers explaining how my birth certificate name differed from the name I used until marrying. I once asked mother if this would be a legal problem later in life and she said, no – as long as no fraud was intended it was okay. Maybe, maybe not but it didn’t present any problems today. Next year: social security. There are definitely perks to getting older!

Remembering

This was taken at Griffith Park, Los Angeles. My cousin is on the left and I'm on the right. I am thirteen here - reached my full height 5'9" when I was 12. My four-month older cousin was eventually 6'.My cousin, Aunt Amy's son, was the closest thing to a big brother I had. Lee was a math whiz from the get-go. When we were in first grade I remember my grandpa asking me if I knew how old he was. When I said no, he said he’d give me a clue and told me the year he was born. That didn’t help me at all but when he asked my cousin the same thing, he figured it out.

He joined the air force and was sent to Viet Nam. While stationed in Pennsylvania, he met his future wife and though the marriage produced two children it didn’t last. He later met a divorced woman and fell in love. Her ex-husband decided if he couldn’t have her no one else could either and shot my cousin, leaving him paralyzed and brain damaged. He lived for some time in a convalescent home before dying. It still sounds surreal to recall this. The funeral for him was horrid. The pastor was new to my aunt’s church and got my cousin’s middle name wrong. There is no grief worse than that of losing a child no matter the age. My sister lost her only boy and said the pain really began in the second year – the first year she was just numb.

Aunt Amy stayed in touch with Lee's ex-wife who eventually moved back to Pennsylvania, got a job and planned on moving back to California when she could retire. When that time came, my aunt wanted her to move in with her – she looked forward to the company and the ex would need a place to stay. That didn’t happen because the ex developed cancer and within a couple of months was dead. Lee's son lives in Pennsylvania, his daughter in California. They both keep in touch with their grandma, my aunt. Remembering is a mixed bag - joy, comfort and pain.

Red Letter Day

See the baby? In three months she gets Medicare!Today I called the SSA and (cough) made an appointment to apply for Medicare. Medicare. Isn't that for old folks? Yep, and that now includes me. I turn 65 in June and like the good little cross-your-t's person I am, I did what they say you're supposed to do: call SSA three months before your 65th birthday to apply for benefits. Deb answered my call to their 800 number and made an appointment for me March 5th, Riverside office. March 5th - two days away? She gave such a hearty laugh and asked if I was surprised to get an appointment so soon. Did I expect to have a much longer wait? Well, yeah. I hoped to have enough time to sort of get used to the idea. But I'm a quick study and by Wednesday I'll be ready. Sort of.

Memories

Aunt Amy, Echo Park 1948Amy was the sister closest to my mother in just about every way and more like a second mother to me than an aunt. Growing up in Minnesota she dreamed of moving to Los Angeles and eventually did. She and my uncle bought a house near Echo Park and lived there with their two sons for some years. Later they moved to the San Fernando Valley where she now lives alone; her husband and eldest son have passed away and her younger son lives in Utah with his wife and family.

Echo Park has gone through a period of gentrification and is now home to artists, musicians and bohemian types. The last time we were all there was for a family potluck picnic; I always loved picnics there because the lotus blossoms in the lake were so beautiful and the paddle boats they had for rent were so much fun.