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reflection |
day in the life
Highlighting
the everyday life of a couple living well with a slow-growing cancer.
Life isn’t
always easy, and there will certainly be sorrows and losses
along the way. But being alive is good. It is very good.
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Sunday, Feb 28,
2010
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Uncles and nieces
We get a call from one of our nieces in California.
She’s passing through on her way to Idaho and wants
to know of a good bed-and-breakfast in Bend. That
would be us! I promise her on the phone that I’ll do
my best to make Uncle Gary behave.
It’s not that Gary’s any worse than the rest of a
long line of Johnson men who have always teased
their children and nieces and nephews. And
grandchildren. |
Uncle Gary with 3 of his 9 nieces |
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I remember one conversation between Gary and granddaughter Lilly
when she was 3 years old:
Lilly: “Is this a short video?”
Grandpa: “Yes, it’s this short” (measuring with his hands).
Lilly: “No, no, no, no, no … I mean is it a short video.”
Grandpa: “Yes. See it’s this short and you’re this tall” (again
measuring with his hands).
Lilly: “No, no, no, no, no … I mean is it a short movie.”
Grandpa: “Ohhh … well, why didn’t you say so in the first
place?!”
So, our niece gets into town on Friday. We take her to dinner
and then come home to push the dining table up close to the
fireplace and play several games of Mexican Train with dominoes.
And Gary is reasonably well-behaved, not pestering her too
terribly much about why she isn’t married yet and does she need
his help in finding a husband.
Why they put up with the incessant teasing ... and why they keep
coming back for more
–
I just couldn’t tell ya!
Comment
Sunday, Feb 21,
2010
Blue skies in Portland in February … hmmm
Not that we’re complaining, but we packed an umbrella for this
week’s visit to Portland ... and didn’t need it.
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Mt. Hood and the Willamette taken from our hotel |
Gary and I had a speaking opportunity at Providence
in the City of Roses, and found ourselves in the
middle of a string of gorgeous blue-sky days with
temps in the 50s. I think we can blame it on
El Niño.
Portland is a beautiful town with plenty to do and
see, and one of these days we’ll stay long enough to
be actual tourists.
On this particular visit, we woke up to an
incredible sunrise – snow-clad Mt. Hood silhouetted
against the light of a new day. We rode the aerial
tram from the Oregon Health & Science University
building near the Willamette River to the top of
Marquam Hill where most of OHSU is clustered.
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We’ve driven this hill in the dark of November with rain falling
and fear in our hearts. But that was 5½ years ago when Gary was
first diagnosed. We’ve since learned to manage that fear.
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Aerial tram from OHSU on the river to OHSU on
Marquam Hill |
Afterward, we caught a street car up to Powell’s City of Books.
With more than a million volumes on their shelves and filling an
entire city block, Powell’s is the world’s largest new and used
bookstore.
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Powell’s City of Books on the corners of 10th and
Burnside and Couch and 11th |
There are nine color-coded rooms – if you can’t find what you
want in the Purple Room, try the Rose Room. They say that
approximately 3,000 people walk in and buy something every day,
and another 3,000 just browse and drink coffee. (Being a Chai
tea snob, here’s my tip for the day: don’t waste your money on
their Chai tea.) But do add Powell’s to your list of interesting
things to see and do the next time you’re in Portland.
And bring an umbrella!
Comment
Thursday, Feb
17, 2010
While we’re on the subject of heroes
Although unintentional, the last couple of blogs have been about
local heroes. Today I attended a meeting where the guest of
honor was a garbage truck painted with purple detail
–
also a hero, of sorts.
The story behind the truck centers around the Martinez family,
owners of Wilderness Garbage & Recycling in LaPine. Touched by cancer.
Twice.
The Martinez family recruited members of their garbage haulers
association for a fundraising idea to assist Central Oregon
families with non-medical living expenses while in treatment – fuel cards, grocery cards, rent and utility
assistance.
The local garbage hauling companies
enclosed purple envelopes
with their April billing, asking every household and business to
“pitch
in”
$1. They raised over $13,000 in their first fundraising efforts
in 2009 and are now gearing up for the 2010 campaign -
appropriately named CAN Cancer.
Stu Martinez
arranged for the white and purple garbage truck to make its
debut at today’s
planning meeting. The photos don’t
do it justice
–
it’s
really quite a classy job!
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Stu Martinez with one of his drivers and a very
classy purple and white garbage truck |
So there you have it. More heroes in Central Oregon – the
Martinez family, the Central Oregon Garbage Haulers Association,
and a very classy garbage truck painted with purple detail!
Comment
Saturday, Feb
13, 2010
Caliber
of our friends
Our fearless leader was down and, instead of helping him up, we
were all laughing and pointing, and Gary was snapping away on his camera.
(After
all, what are friends for?!)
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Fearless leader fallen ... and the rest of the crew
so helpful |
Central Oregon boasts a remarkable community of survivors
and co-survivors who are involved in a variety of volunteer
efforts. Without guys like Mike Gibson—our
fallen-in-the-snow leader—and
Jeff Scott, for example,
we wouldn’t
have our hiking, snow-shoeing and kayaking adventures. There
just isn’t
enough manpower in the St. Charles Cancer Services
department to do it all.
So many of our local survivors get it. They understand
that being in service to others makes the cancer journey that
much better for them. Gary and I are proud to know these
people and
count them as our friends.
It’s
about signing up and showing up, about having fun together,
about drawing strength and inspiration from each other.
This is our cancer club; this is the caliber of our friends.
Comment
Thursday, Feb
11,
2010
Courage walking
Someone handed in an evaluation sheet this week after watching
Gary Bonacker speak at our monthly
DEFEAT Cancer
meeting. “It’s like seeing courage walking,” she wrote.
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Lance Armstrong & Gary Bonacker |
Gary, a friend of ours, is the co-owner of Sunnyside
Sports here in Bend. In the spring of 2003, after he
began having seizures, an MRI showed a Stage 2 tumor
in his brain about the size and shape of a Silly
Putty egg.
The surgeon was able to
remove only half the tumor and Bonacker is on
anti-seizure medications. The side effects have
forced him to cut back to 15-20 hours a week in his
store.
In October 2004,
Bonacker rode alongside Lance Armstrong in the Ride
for the Roses. The experience impressed him so
profoundly that he decided to stage a cycling event
to raise funds for cancer. It was dubbed
Tour des Chutes,
named after the river that flows through the middle
of our town. |
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The first event was held
in July 2005. Bonacker and his team of volunteers
expected 300 participants, but 750 riders showed up.
The
’05 Tour brought in a
little over $42,000, an unprecedented amount for a
first-year grass roots event in a town with a
population of 75,000.
Every year since then,
Bonacker has presented a sizeable check to help fund
the Survivorship Program at St. Charles. |
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L to r: Dr. Archie Bleyer; Peggy Carey,
Cancer Program Director; Gary Bonacker;
and Dwight Heaney, VP of Philanthropy
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“There’s not a day in my
life that I don’t go into this deep, dark hole for a while,”
Gary once told me. “But having a great family, a great workplace
and friends, and having something like Tour des Chutes has
helped me so much.”
Bonacker attributes the success
of these cycling events to a terrific group of volunteers. His
volunteers attribute its success to the fact that people within the cancer and
cycling communities have rallied around a worthy cause and a
much-loved cancer warrior.
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...
and
snow-capped mountains as a backdrop for
palm trees? (It might not look like much powder, but we were at
the top of Mount San Jacinto later that day in 4 feet of snow.) |
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Sunday, Feb 7,
2010
Only in Southern California
Glad
we kept a camera handy all week or you would never believe what
we saw.
Where else but in Southern California would you find an elephant
guarding a hillside ...
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A short walk
from our hotel
into the town of Westchester, we discovered that if you can’t
catch a low-flying jumbo jet from Sepulveda Blvd, try
renting a Rolls.
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Variety of transportation choices out of Westchester |
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On
Thursday, we drove
north along the coastline and had lunch outdoors at Gladstone’s
with the Pacific waves breaking beneath us. Best fish tacos I’ve
ever eaten.
On the way back,
we stopped
in the Venice Beach area for a walk along the sand and onto the
pier. A crew was setting up camera equipment, so we stepped into
a little alcove to be out of the way and watch the surfers (but
still keep an eye on the camera crew).
The girl with the headset who seemed to be giving a
lot of orders said we could stay where we were as long as we
didn’t take any photos using our flash.
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Orlando Bloom walking through a scene |
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So there we were
– 15 feet from Orlando Bloom. Only we didn’t know
it was Orlando Bloom (which shows you we need to get
out more). Only in Southern California.
Back at the hotel, we sent photos to our four kids asking if they knew any of the
actors. Our daughter e-mailed back with envy: “Tourist!”
“Not tourist,” I replied. “Paparazzi!”
Comment
Saturday, Feb
6, 2010
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Plenty of time to catch our flight |
Well trained
So Gary drags me out of bed at 5:00 this morning
to catch the hotel shuttle to LAX in plenty of
time for a 7:30 flight home.
We print our
boarding passes, go to check one bag through,
and the guy at the counter says,
“You
know this flight leaves at 7:30pm, right?”
All I’m
saying is, good thing Gary got me up at 5:00am to make
our 7:30pm flight.
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Comment
Thursday, Feb
4, 2010
Diversity
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We had the privilege of meeting Dr. Arash Asher this
week. He is the
Director of Survivorship at the Cedars-Sinai Oschin
Cancer Institute and is enthusiastic
about growing a strong cancer survivorship program. We had finalized
the date and
time of our presentation on the Friday before we left for LA, and by
Tuesday, Dr. Asher and his staff (Nancy, a dynamo
staff of one!) had managed to gather a sizeable group
on short notice. |
 Cedars-Sinai
- site of Tues presentation |
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Yamashiro - lovely landscaping and city views |
After the presentation and since we were in the
neighborhood, we ate at Yamashiro, a restaurant
recommended by our daughter-in-law featuring
CalAsian cuisine set high in the Hollywood Hills.
The food was delicious and reasonably priced; the
service was great; and the views included beautiful
hillside landscaping overlooking a gorgeous sunset.
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Yesterday, we drove out to Cathedral City to speak
to a group of survivors at Gilda’s Club. Although a
different look and feel than their Manhattan
flagship, it carries the same lovely concept of
offering support to cancer survivors in warm, inviting spaces. This particular clubhouse was
founded by a local resident whose wife had cancer.
He got together with a group of friends and raised
the funds to build and staff the clubhouse. |
Gilda’s Club in Cathedral City - different look than
the Manhattan flagship; same great concept
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We had never been in the Palm Springs area before, so were
amazed at this beautiful oasis
with green grass and palm trees surrounded by tall rugged hills
that grow straight up out of the desert floor.
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After our presentation, we took the aerial tram (world’s
largest rotating tram cars)
to the Mount San Jacinto
State Park & Wilderness – 8,500’ above Palm Springs –
with the intent of hiking one of the trails. As it
turned out, there was 4’ of snow at the top with
only the nearby sidewalks cleared and we weren’t
dressed warmly enough to go snow-shoeing (you can
rent their equipment).
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Leisurely
lunch at 8,500 feet |
What’s amazing about Southern California is there are so many
diverse cultures and communities within a few short hours of
each other – sometimes within a few short blocks of each other.
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Cathedral City is a laid-back
retirement community generously caring for its own
cancer survivor residents.
Nearby Mount San Jacinto State
Park and Wilderness, at the top of the Palm Springs
aerial tramline, appeals to tourists and outdoor
enthusiasts with its 54 miles of hiking trails and
remote camp sites. |
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6,000’
ride to the Mount San Jacinto State Park
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Yamashiro, the CalAsian hillside
restaurant, has its own fascinating history, having witnessed “the
birth of the film industry, the glamour of Hollywood’s Golden
Age, the difficult times of war with Japan, and the current
period of intense interest in Eastern cultures.”
And Cedars-Sinai, an institution going about the business of
research and treatment, has a wonderful young doctor at the helm
of Survivorship endeavoring to help patients live as well as
possible during and after cancer.
Back at the hotel, we get this e-mail note from one of the
oncology nurses at Cedars-Sinai:
“I
was taking care of a patient today whose husband noticed your
flyer in the coffee room. He snuck away while his wife was
getting her treatment to attend your seminar. I just wanted to
let you know that he returned to his wife’s room and spoke
nothing but good things about your talk. You were very helpful
to him.”
Amazing how a few simple words help confirm that what we hope to
do full-time is truly of value.
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Tuesday, Feb 2,
2010
Cream of the crop
We left our Los Angeles hotel in plenty of time to make it to
The Wellness Community in Santa Monica yesterday morning. An
hour and a half later – after asking four different people for
directions and a frantic phone call to TWC office – we found
our way.
It’s not that we’re directionally challenged; it’s that
MapQuest had us
turn right on Washington Blvd instead of left – so we were
wandering all over the east side of the 405 in the Culver City
area looking for streets that weren’t there.
Lessons learned: Keep to the freeways. Just because MapQuest
thinks it knows a shorter route through surface streets, don’t
believe it. (I
can hear our daughter now: “Mom, if you and Dad would just join the
21st century and get an iPhone with GPS …”)
Making up for it yesterday afternoon, we arrived an hour early
to speak to a group of nursing students at Goldenwest College in
Huntington Beach. We found the building, found a parking spot …
and then decided we really didn’t want to sit in the parking lot
until time to go in. So we cruised the neighborhood looking for
a Starbux just in case we needed to make a Chai tea run
following the presentation. (We did.)
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The cream of the crop with their instructors at
Goldenwest College |
We were told the nursing program at Goldenwest College accepts
66 students of the 800+ that apply
each year,
so these
young
people are the cream of the crop.
Someone in the audience asks Gary about his experience with nurses. “I love
nurses,” he says.
Nurses are the face and personality of the hospital or clinic.
The doctor comes through and he’s all business and
knowledge. The nurses are the heart. They have
the opportunity to show compassion and be a
personal touch for the duration of the patient’s institutional
experience. Priceless.
Gary and I admire these cream of the crop students who
have chosen such a high – and challenging – calling.
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January 2010
End of the tunnel
Disturbing the snow
Good things come to
an end
American mobile family
Get moving
Any excuse for a date
Much more than a sports flick
December 2009
All the facts are true
No-el, No-whale
Mountain snob
Going to Hawaii
Finding our own way
It's just a number
Seasons of Christmas
Civil War in the CTC
My life in France
November 2009
Empty cafeteria trays
A few of my favorite things
Counting eagles
America’s best and brightest
Thinking about
Large amounts of hope
Memories, milestones
Married to a very patient man
October 2009
Healing reins
Trail to nowhere
Above the fray
Knitting connections
Touching everything
Modern technology
Hot date spot
Red sock day
I got all my sisters with me
September 2009
Tenacious like a bulldog
Best years of my life
Now we should live
Across the high desert
50 things to do before you
die
Anticipation
Summer past and random
thoughts
Running to win
August 2009
Far cry from canned chili &
peas
Knight in shining armor
Berry-Peach Cobbler
Roller coaster rides
Celebrating life
Dan in Real Life
Ridiculous
Gift of life
Grant-writing retreat
July 2009
Heartsore
In the moment
Extended birthday present
River traffic
Munch & Music
Dealing with the paparazzi
Midnight cruise
Behind red doors
June 2009
Happy kind of exhausted
4:30am blog
Fat checkmarks
One of the benefits of cancer
Calm before the storm
Big picture thinking
May 2009
Back to the real world
Quick trip to the EC
Audacious living
Connecticut adventure
April 2009
Flat Stanley in Ory-gun
Baby steps
Four-day weekend
Soaring on wings
Sunbathing
C.O. style
Real men wear pink
Fun in the CTC
March 2009
Live like you were dying
Day jobs
Connected
CAN Cancer
The power of one
February 2009
It's official
Fun with the medical professionals
To my valentine
Moments in Jersey
January 2009
Leaving on a
jet plane
Scans ordered
Welcome to life
Insane residents
Back in high school
Engaged crowd
Out of the mouths of babes
Divine intervention
December 2008
Christmas
via webcam
A merry little
Christmas
Somewhere on purpose
Adventure and
romance
Celebrate life
Imagine
Men and menopause
November 2008
My Thanksgiving list
Thanksgiving
Eve
Roundabouts
How Starbucks
saved my life
Training for
Switzerland
Radio interview
Super colon
Thoughts on
being invisible
The speed of a turtle
October 2008
Obligation of
the cured
Cancer Adventures – the book
Blue and orange town
Hope Couture
First snow
Simple
pleasures are the best
128 quilts
September 2008
Whale watching
and kite flying
The new and relaxed Gary
The scenic
route
Packing the essentials
One step at a
time
PSA count celebration
August 2008
Frost in August
Reading list
Soaring Spirits
Checking in
9:30am rock band
Lingering
July 2008
Grand for a reason
Mickey Mouse
pancakes
Survivorship is all the rage
Follow your dreams
Birthday weekend
Only in America
Unrelated goose incident
June 2008
Geese
Road trip
Friday night date
Tough day on the job
Best dad
Confession
Light bulb moment
Homesick
Amazing volunteers
May
2008
Countdown
Extended family
Testing the limits
Trailblazers
The last lecture
Mother’s Day thoughts
Welcome to our world, Lydia
Personal touch
April 2008
Dispensing goodness
Cancer community – Part II
Cancer community
Barn
door analogies
Homemade soup day
Mice and tumors
Waiting room magazines
Weekend date
First entry
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