Good Bye, Cheryl!

My friend Cheryl passed away last night after a valiant fight against breast cancer that metastasized to her liver. Cheryl's husband Dan passed in March of this year from a brain tumor; they will be together for Christmas. Here she is at a luncheon with co-workers back in October.

Cheryl is in the front row, 2nd from left with the bunny ears.

Curtis, Lori, & Brent dropped by this morning with Christmas presents. They also brought a Christmas pineapple for us since Mom & Dad no longer have any tree hardware or Christmas decorations.


We're all going to Aunty Judy's house for Christmas dinner. I spent several hours today making the Fluffy Dinner Rolls to take as part of our contribution. I really like this recipe since I can make it a day ahead and the rolls are still nice and moist. Tomorrow I will be busy baking a pumpkin pie and a salmon.

This afternoon Mom was worrying over 2 Veterans Administration letters she found that Dad had received. In March. One needed to be returned within 60 days or any dependents would be removed, since it was way more than 60 days and Dad really has no dependents, it was moot. I told Mom it was no longer valid and she said it was OK to write that no action was needed, so I did. The other was just requesting a copy of Dad's Advance Directives. After dinner she was bugging Dad about them. Then she read the note that she told me to write on one of the envelopes. She told me to stop opening their mail and reading it and making decisions without their input! Note to self: Make Mom write her own notes on the envelopes.

You may recall that when we returned from Las Vegas in early November, Mom's skin was itching a lot and Dr. Pham recommended applying a moisturizing lotion twice a day. I found an article on lotions & bought 3 of the higher rated ones and have been using them on Mom every day. After almost a month of using them I am ready to release the results of my less than scientific "test". They all worked well at stopping the itching and subsequent open sores & bleeding BUT only if I had Mom use them every day, twice a day, AND in generous amounts. Palmer's has a great fragrance of chocolate when it is initially applied. Gold Bond seemed to work the fastest in the beginning when her skin was really dry, but later all worked equally well. Due to the dementia Mom is fixated on wanting her "itch cream", she doesn't understand that the benadryl cream is not what has stopped the itching. Because all the lotions work well, I have decided to use the Curel since "itch defense" is part of it's name and I can point it out when Mom demands her "itch cream".


Happy Birthday to Vernon!