A Little of This a Little of That

Happy St.,Patrick's Day! Believe it or not I am up on the sun deck writing this blog on a sunny, breezy 70 degree in the middle of March

Today is the third day this week the weather has been warm and sunny enough for me to venture up to the sun deck. I guess more importantly I was able to climb all 19 steps to the roof and walk across the deck to my chaise lounge.

Of course I could not have done this, at least not yet, on my full legs, I donned my short legs to accomplish this task. So far none of my neighbors have seen me in these weird short legs and if they do, I will just deal with it. Sometimes in life we just have to do what we have to do to accomplish what is important to us.

Although I have made some strides (excuse the pun) toward being a little less self conscious about wearing these short legs, I am by no means prepared to wear them out in public, I doubt I ever will.

Remember when I mentioned walking up and down the stairs at physical therapy and the prosthetist's office? As I remembered, climbing up the stairs was much more difficult than descending down the stairs. This has not been the case the two previous times this week I have tackled the stairs.

I was so fatigued from descending down the stairs this week, much more so than climbing up the stairs, that it took ten minutes for my legs to recover. I guess I will let you know how my trip down goes on another blog as I am writing this before I go down the stairs.

Usually I try to stick to one subject per blog entry but today I also want to talk about Shawn's Memorial Service which took place last night.

The service went really well, all in all. We had a good turn out around thirty people and their were lots of stories about Shawn and his antics. I sensed that there was not enough credit given to Vini for his contribution to Shawn's happiness and for the extraordinary care given to Shawn by Vini from the beginning of his cancer three years ago until Shawn took his last breath.

I felt it was necessary and appropriate to mention to everyone at the memorial how much time, energy and love Vini had given Shawn. You know it's odd sometimes how credit is given to family members almost exclusively and very little is given to the person who spent the most time with Shawn, comforting him and cleaning up the messes that dying can cause.

I continued to explain that although all of our lives had been affected by Shawn's death, Vini's life was the most dramatically impacted by the loss of Shawn. After all Vini had quit his job to take care of Shawn at the end, he will also have to change residences, worry about buying a car, and the financial ramifications of Shawn's death are life changing for Vini.

After I had finished what I had to say, I wondered, only slightly, if I had said the right thing. Later a couple of people at the memorial approached me to tell what I had said was beautiful.

I know Vini is relieved the sevice is behind him and can feel good that he honored Shawn's life with grace and dignity. I made a promise to Shawn that I would be here for Vini not just today or tomorrow but for a very long time.

One of the most beneficial things to come out of Shawn's death is my new friendship with Vini.

It has been said that one of the true measures of a life well lived, is how much you were loved by others, if that is true, than my friend Shawn Daly lived an exceptional life.

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