Where the ordinary and the anything-but-ordinary collide Two years ago today, I was pacing. Wandering. Killing time. Wired on I-don’t-know-how-many cups of coffee, but exhausted from “sleeping” in a hospital recliner – that didn’t stay reclined – the night before. My husband and my son were both in surgery, at the same time. Mark to […]
There is nothing natural about a baby with cancer. I think pretty much everyone would agree with that. But taking care of a baby with cancer is actually a completely natural, extraordinarily ordinary act. It is everything you do when taking care of a baby without cancer, just multiplied in both practice and reverence. You […]
Every time he gets into the car and complains of a headache, I’m pleased. When he’s out of breath after climbing a single flight of stairs, I feel relief. And when he’s too exhausted to drag himself out of bed even after 14 hours of sleep, I think, “Oh, good.” No, I’m not an evil […]
You know what they say about those, right? During Austin’s second bout with cancer, when he was 3 1/2, we were told that his kidney would probably last until he hit puberty when a growth spurt and added muscle mass would put it into overdrive, causing it to eventually peter out. At the time, we […]
On this day, every one of us still thinks back to where we were on that morning fourteen years ago; what we were doing, how we learned the news, who we called first. Everyone has their 9/11 story, just like everyone of older generations has their Pearl Harbor story or their JFK and MLK and […]
How on earth did we end up here? That’s what was running through my subconscious as I attempted to fall asleep in a hospital room on Monday, July 30, 2007, with Austin in a crib beside me. How did this happen? An excerpt from that, you know, “book” of mine. I won’t go all the […]
It all started on a swelteringly hot Monday in July. Almost eight years ago. Our boys were 3 1/2 and ten months old. We lived in a different house. We were different people. Because it changed everything. In ways large and small, obvious and subtle, it shifted and molded each of the four of us […]
It’s March 20th. The first day of spring. A time that for most of us marks a beginning. A sense of relief (phew, we made it!) and excitement for all that’s to come (it is coming, you know). New growth, lengthening days, all the signs of life returning. It is not so for the Meyer […]
Sunday was wonderful. Sad, happy, moving, chaotic, upbeat, serious, silly. Wonderful. Thank you to everyone who helped the day run smoothly, so smoothly, in fact, that we finished shaving 170 heads in just over three hours. All of the volunteers, from the hard working barbers to the kids hawking baked goods, made our event the […]
I’m gonna say the same thing here that I say every year, because it’s the only thing that deserves to be said at this moment: THANK YOU. I am humbled and honored to be able to bring this event to this community and I am humbled and honored by how enthusiastically this community embraces this […]