Tag Archives: Kathy Anne

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Time is relentless … and merciless

Reminders present themselves to me with stunning regularity … and they all say the same thing, which is that time is not my friend, that it marches on without mercy.

åHow do I know that? For starters, I know when I was born and that date tells me I am 75 years of age. I am actually still upright a touch longer than your average American male. I also know when the reminders knock when I see obituaries of friends. I heard this past week about the passing of a friend my bride and I knew in Amarillo. Kathy Anne is gone now, but I am going back up yonder at the end of the month to celebrate Caroline Woodburn’s life.

I am acutely aware that I am not providing a flash for those who are older than I am. They’ve known the obvious longer than I have. However, it is worth mentioning only because I am enough of a realist to understand what we all know to be true … that death is a part of life.

I have lost several longtime friends over the past calendar year. The rate of demise is accelerating. I am not a Pollyanna about this fact of life. Indeed, when I don’t hear from peers of the same age for any length of time, I begin to presume the worst. For instance, a high school classmate of mine — a fellow to whom I’ve grown close since we graduated from high school in 1967 — went quiet on social media for longer than usual. I called him to see if he is still alive. He is! I told the reason for my call and he assured me he is in good shape except for the usual old timers’ issues that plague all of us. We both laughed out loud.

The reminders keep arriving. I am an old man. I don’t expect to check outta here any day soon. However, as we all should understand, all of that can change — snap! — just like that.

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A positive result to report

I want to report to you some astounding news I received this week from my primary care physician … and it appears to be a result of the nutrition class I attended at home offered by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

My doctor has removed my daily dose of cholesterol medication from my routine. She told me my lab results are so positive that she doesn’t see the need to continue taking the pills each day.

I looked at her and said, plainly and simply, “Wow!”

I sought professional help from the VA because I had gained a lot of weight in the two years since I lost my bride, Kathy Anne, to an aggressive form of brain cancer … glioblastoma. I had been taking the anti-cholesterol meds for many years prior to that tragic event. The meds had done their job, reeling in my cholesterol and triglycerides to within range of normal. Indeed, when I first saw a doctor in Amarillo way back when, he told me the substance they drew from my arm “didn’t even look like blood.” My lab numbers were off the charts. He declared that I was fortunate to have avoided serious impairment or death by a stroke.

The VA nutrition program was intended to jump-start a weight loss effort. That didn’t happen. Although I have peeled a few pounds off this overfed old man’s body. What did happen was a change of lifestyle. I can state with clear honesty that I have changed my eating habits. I forgo the junk food that would formerly entice me.

This week, I got some hard numbers that told me my efforts have paid off. I want to share that with you because of the support I have gotten from Blogger Land from those who tell me they want me to stay in the game of commenting on world affairs.

So … there you have it. Life is good. I intend to keep living it for a while longer.

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Declaring victory in this fight

I stand before you today to declare a conditional victory in the war I have been waging … with myself.

About 15 weeks ago, I joined a class of fellow military veterans who reportedly struggled as I have with weight control. I sought professional help because I was unable to come to grips with what I determined was my addiction to comfort food.

I smothered myself in comfort food after I lost my bride, Kathy Anne, to brain cancer a little more than two years ago. I reached out to the Department of Veterans Affairs and  lo and behold, I learned that the VA medical center in Bonham has an online class it teaches to veterans just like me.

So, for the past four months I have been taking this course online with the help of a nutritionist who works for the VA. I learned a great deal on how to curb my impulses, how to control myself and how to change my life.

Therefore, I will declare victory in the “changing of my life” aspect. I have done so!

I know what some of you might be wondering: Have I lost much weight? No. I haven’t. The point is that I am able to maintain control of my impulses by eliminating certain snack foods from my diet. I no longer splurge on sugary treats. I measure my portions of meat and vegetables. I consume increasing amounts of veggies and fruits daily. I am drinking an adequate amount of water.

I am feeling like a million bucks.

I had set an ambitious weight-loss goal at the outset. I didn’t reach the finish line. I have dropped a few pounds, to be sure. However, I am going to keep striving. I feel energized if only by the knowledge that I can change my life and, in fact, have done so.

I feel a certain sense of accomplishment and I just want to share it with those of you who read this blog and know a bit of the struggle my family and I have endured. For me, it came in the form of that damn comfort food.

I am happy to declare victory. The time will come when I can declare a victory without condition. I just need to reach that goal I set. I’ll get there.

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Dogs are in fact ‘loved ones’

I saw a social media post that declared, “Losing a dog is almost as bad as losing a loved one.”

Hah! “Almost as bad”? I beg to differ. Losing a dog is just like losing a loved one. At least that’s the case in my house.

I live in North Texas and am the parent of an energetic 6-year-old Chihuahua mix named Sabol,  Sabol joined my family right after I returned from an overseas vacation in September 2024. We met at a park in Princeton and fell in love with each other immediately.

You see, Sabol was living with a woman who is in failing health and her daughter sought to find a new home for the puppy. That’s when I came along. Sabol took the place of another Chihuahua mix pooch I lost in December 2023 to cancer. I wrote extensively about Toby the Puppy over the nine years he brought joy to my household. I lost Toby the same year cancer claimed my bride of 51 years. Indeed, Toby’s passing provided a symbolic bookend to the worst year of my life. I said farewell to Kathy Anne near the beginning of 2023 and I said the same to Toby the Puppy near the end of that horrific year.

I won’t equate the losses. I won’t say that losing Toby was the same as losing Kathy Anne. I will say, though, that letting Toby go after his battle with cancer became too much for him hurt just like “losing a loved one.” I loved Toby very much.

And I love Sabol just as much.

I long ago ceased referring to myself as a “pet owner.” I am a proud “pet parent,.” And like any parent can fathom, losing a loving furry baby brings plenty of pain.

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Another tale of loss

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My reluctance to share this latest twist in my life’s journey has buckled under the pressure to reveal a bit about my family to all of you.

I lost my sister to illness not long ago. She was 14 months younger than me. She had suffered terribly for a long time with a list of ailments too long for me to count here. It was a bout with COPD that claimed my sis. Her heart stopped and the medics couldn’t bring her back.

Georgianne died in the house she shared with her husband.

Sis led a complicated life. However, we remained close despite some differences over many issues dating back to our teen years. It’s difficult to explain, except that I knew her my entire life. She was part of my life the moment I became aware of my surroundings as a toddler.

I have been feeling down in the dumps over the past several days. I guess it’s a feeling of mortality that has gripped me.

My parents weren’t allowed to grow old. Dad was 59 when he perished in a boating accident in 1980. Mom was 61 when she succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease four years later. My bride was 71 when she passed from glioblastoma — cancer of the brain. All but one of my parents’ eight siblings have passed away.

We’re going to gather later this week to celebrate Georgianne’s life in a service at a church she and her husband attended in a rural Washington state community. The next day we will gather at a cemetery in Portland to have her remains blessed by an Orthodox priest from the church where my sisters and I were baptized.

I have no particular need to tell you all of this, other than to put it in the open. I have one sister left and I venture to believe we will be drawn even closer than we are already … and that’s really saying something.

Maybe I should declare a bit of regret that I wasn’t always kind to my departed sister. She had this way of getting under my skin with the occasional statement or opinion that exhibited a stunning lack of awareness that others were hurting.

But … she was my sister. I loved her unconditionally. I will miss her for the rest of my life.

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No redeeming value in this loss

Two years have passed since I experienced the worst day of my life and I still am getting the reaction from those intending to offer some semblance of comfort.

I recently explained to someone who inquired about my marital status. “I am a widower,” I responded. “Oh? Tell me what happened,” came the reaction. I told this individual about the glioblastoma that struck Kathy Anne, about the surgery to removed part of the mass in her brain, the rehab, the grand mal seizure and finally the end that came six weeks after the diagnosis.

“At least she didn’t suffer,” the individual said … to which I shot back, “There is nothing positive I can claim from all this.”

To be clear, I am rebuilding my life and the foundation for my new life looks promising. The brevity of my bride’s battle does not lessen the pain that came at the end of her life on Earth.

I have been through all kinds of family tragedy. Dad’s death in September 1980 was sudden and shocking. The last words I said to him were, “I’ll see you Wednesday.” He left on a weekend fishing trip to British Columbia, but then perished when the skipper of the boat he was in crashed into a log jam. Dad died instantly. I got the news and I felt the numbness of the shock consume my body.

Mom died nearly four years later to the day. She suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. We watched her disappear before our eyes over several years, losing cognitive skill bit by agonizing bit. The end came. I was expecting it.

Both instances inflicted enormous pain on our family.

Then came Kathy Anne’s sudden illness and then she was gone.

I never will accept the end of my bride’s life as a “blessing” because she “didn’t suffer.” The pain, although it still twinges, has become something I am able to manage and control.

Life does go on.

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Worst day spawns new life

The worst day of my life befell my family and me two years ago today.

My beloved bride, Kathy Anne, lost her battle with glioblastoma. Fifty-one years with this wonderful woman could not have been more glorious, adventuresome and thrilling as we watched our sons grow into the two finest men you’ll ever know. We also watched our granddaughter come into this world and she, too, is growing into a delightful young lady.

I am not going to dwell, though, on the sorrow. I am going to deal briefly with the journey I have taken on my way out of the darkness.

I took that journey largely on instruction from my bride, who told me that if she were to go first that she wanted me — she insisted on it — to find happiness. Do not wallow in grief, she said. Kathy Anne was a woman of conviction, which told me she meant what she said.

My life is still under reconstruction. I don’t know when I’ll be able to declare that my task is complete. Maybe it’ll never be done completely. Whatever. I am ready for whatever comes my way.

She prepared me well for this kind of journey. For that preparation I will be in her debt forever.

Every single person I have met, or will meet along the rest of this trek will know that I miss her. I just intend to tell the whole world, though, that despite her absence I will live every day as if it’s my final day on this good Earth.

That is my bride’s legacy.

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45 years of tobacco freedom!

It was 45 years ago today that I lit the last cigarette I ever would attempt to smoke … only to snuff it, toss it and turn my back on a nasty habit I had acquired at the tender age of 15.

I was 30 years of age when I quit the habit cold turkey. My bride had been badgering me to do so, in that I had developed a “smoker’s cough.” I was smoking two packs a day, man! I wasn’t feeling well that day, so when I lit the cigarette, I damn near choked on it. My immediate thought in the monent was: What the hell am I doing to myaelf?

I knew the answer. I was killing myself. I was not prepared to die, given that I had a beautiful wife and two young sons who told me they wanted me to part of their lives.

I knew nothing about the cost that the habit would bring to those who still light ’em up today. Cigarettes sell now for about $7 a pack. Multiply that by two and that’s $14  each day going up in flames in my house. Ninety-eight bucks each  week, and $5,096 annually.

Wow! I can think of many more productive and enjoyable ways to spend that kind of dough.

And healthier, too!

As I look back, I believe today that decision — made immediately and acted on with dispatch — was among the smartest acts I have commited in the long life I have been granted.

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Remembering final big move

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Thirty years ago this week, I piled most of my worldly possessions into a 1987 Honda Civic and set out for what would be the final stop on my fun-filled career in print journalism.

I had spent nearly 11 years pursuing my craft in Beaumont, Texas, but then an opportunity presented itself in a community far from the Gulf Coast … but still part of this vast state of ours.

I moved to Amarillo. People have asked me over the years when I moved to the Panhandle, and I have been able to tell them the precise date. I reported for work at the Amarillo Globe-News on Jan. 9, 1995. I departed Beaumont on Jan. 6; it took a while to drive from the swamp to the High Plains.

I made one overnight stop in Fort Worth to see some dear friends before trudging northwest along U.S. 287.

But I got to Amarillo. I would learn later of a quip I adopted and have used many times: It is so flat in the Panhandle that if you stand on your tiptoes, you can see the back of your own head. 

It helps, too, that the region is so barren that there’s little tall timber to block that view.

The point of this brief blog? It’s to highlight the flexibility and adaptability I didn’t realize I possessed when I decided to move from my native Oregon to Texas in 1984.

They used to run a tourism ad that called Texas a “whole other country.” How true it is. Beaumont not only is a lengthy mileage distance from the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast possesses a whole other culture. Whereas the Panhandle prides itself on its cowboy tradition, the Golden Triangle takes pride in its Cajun southern culture. Both places appeal to me greatly.

Life took another huge turn in March 2013 when my granddaughter came into this world. My bride and I set about preparing to move from the Panhandle to the Metroplex. It took a while, but we got here.

I guess I want simply to salute the journey my career enabled me to take. Kathy Anne and I saw much of this country and a good part of world on that trek. Texas gave us the opportunity to live a wonderful life.

We have been blessed beyond all measure. My journey continues.

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Getting old is OK, however …

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Forgive me for reneging a little on a promise I made regarding this new nutrition and weight-management program I have just begun.

I said I wouldn’t bore you with nitty-gritty details I take at every step along the way. I want to share one item with you. So … bear with me.

The Veterans Administration has a program that teaches us how to control our meal intake and change our lifestyle. I have gotten far too heavy for my own liking. My dear bride’s passing from cancer nearly two years ago sent me into an eating frenzy I didn’t realize was occurring in the moment. But it was.

I am working my way out of that former life. I have just started that long journey. I have decided that my older age — I just turned 75 a little while ago — has robbed me of the discipline I was able to employ many years ago.

Once, in my mid-20s, I had gained a lot of weight. I decided to join my wife, who had just given birth to our first son, in a weight-loss program. It worked famously. I peeled off 52 pounds. If I may sound a bit conceited, I was proud of myself.

Those days are long gone. I have put even more weight on this aging body. I need professional help. I sought it out at the VA and the agency has responded by putting me on this program.

I am entering the program with an abundance of confidence, although I cannot yet declare whether it will bear the fruit I seek.

I can declare — therefore I will do so — that I need the help from the VA nutritionist with whom I am working. Just maybe she will keep me focused sufficiently to reach the finish line after completing my stated goal.