Thanksgiving, surviving  cancer, and loss:  what really matters.

"A man was found in his apartment three years after his death – and what it can teach us about loneliness" Editorial in The Dallas Morning News, 11/23/2018




As Ron and I charge into our eighth decade (our 70s), having suffered loss (Ron's beloved Michelle and my surviving prostate cancer (so far)), I was shocked to read an article about a man found dead in his apartment after his death, three years ago. Yes, it's 2019, an era of all forms of communications, yet nobody, including this man's mother, knew that something was amiss. The man died alone at the age of fifty one! 

As an advocate for prostate cancer Learn More, and a survivor myself, I know how lonely one feels when diagnosed with prostate cancer. When both Karen and I were patients and caregivers following my surgery and her near-fatal fall at the hospital, our neighbors, my parish, fraternity brothers, and family embraced us with support, for which we will be forever grateful. 

Our experience is the subject of my book, The Prostate Chronicles - A Medical Memoir, an irreverent look at this experience. Frankly, loneliness is a senior's worst nightmare. What brightens my day is using Social Media to stay connected to friends, fraternity brothers, former associates and family. Email and text messages are important, easy-access tools. 

Karen's siblings each take a day or two a week to call their mother, Floretta, who lives alone in Oklahoma City. If she doesn't answer a text or phone call, a nearby son drives over to check on her. A long-time neighbor has been enrolled in this safety net, too. 

 I text my brother, message my sister, email my friends and stay connected because the fear of dying alone is looming as we age.
"White’s case drives home the importance of making real connections. There should be people in our lives who can and will reach out to at least check on our well-being or at least notice when something might seem odd." Editorial Section, Dallas Morning News 11/23/2019




#Thanksgiving#loneliness#friends#connections#socialmedia#smartphones#virtualworld

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BEHIND ENEMY LINES ON GUADALCANAL. THEN IWO...

Image
Shutterstock Marble 75 years ago, five Marines and a sailor hoisted a flagpole atop Mt. Suribachi. Several of them would die within weeks, there on Iwo Jima. Three of them now rest in Arlington under marble headstones. Near the Continental Divide in Colorado, a tiny town sits at the base of a marble mountain. A century ago, from its quarries men cut great blocks of purest whiteness for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Lincoln Memorial.  David Gould @ Pexels Steam locomotives pulled flatcars piled high with impure pieces of it alongside the  Crystal River, as men shoved them into the river to stabilize its banks.  The town built a schoolhouse atop blocks of it. Dad made the back step of our house out of it.   Of course, t he town's name is Marble. The Poet Wikimedia Commons In 1994, my wife Michelle and I returned to Colorado to live in Redstone, a tiny town downriver from Marble. Michelle was a teacher at the Marble school an...
Read more

MY WIFE HAS DEMENTIA. Now what?

Image
Pixabay What Do I Do? My wife and I heard that diagnosis six years ago. It was the worst news of her life. And mine. So, here's what I know: your immediate future will illuminate for you, and her, what kind of husband you are. I’m not a doctor or therapist of any kind. But I’ve trod this path and maybe I can provide you some helpful insight. Here goes... One day in 2013, my wife was her usual, lovely self. The next day she was in the ICU, being asked every hour if she knew what year it was. A week later we were home. There was lots of hope for rehab and how “this diagnosis affects everyone differently.”  The fact is, your future will be what it’ll be. You won’t know how it’ll turn out until it’s all over. For now, the only thing you’ll have is your conviction that you’re going to help her deal with it, no matter what .  Mauricio Graiko @ Shutterstock “I Do?” You don’t have that conviction? Then these next words are especially for you.  Pardon my bluntn...
Read more

A Scaffold Approach to Brain-Based Learning - A Guest Blog by Dr. Susan Tierno, Ed.D

Image
The Covid 10 Pandemic has shined a light on our education system. In this article Dr. Tierno discusses a scaffold approach to Brain-Based Learning.  In her second edition of  Andamio!  She offers a plethora of research and methods to improve the success rate of Hispanic students in our schools. Over the years as an educator, the researcher has studied much about the brain and its machinations. The study of the brain as it relates to thinking and learning is one of the established axioms in working with children, parents, and teachers, especially for Hispanic ELL communities. The brain is at the core of experience, teaching, learning and language. Why is it then that parents do not dialogue and construct conversations with their children? What follows are a few ideas shared with diverse parents in the  e ngagement training model, all of whom indicated in the research studies that the time constraints of a busy life keeps parents from connecting and communicating with ...
Read more