Before You Die

For the first time ever I got to smell a tuber rose.
Lordy mercy!!! You ever smelled one?
Outta this world...some kinda lovely...transports ya right to a tropical vacation.

Elvis Was Constipated?!

My friend, Dean is in the know about lifes' important matters because she reads People Magazine. She recently informed me that Elvis died of a heart attack which I did not know, did you? But he had the heart attack because he was, you know, constipated...he was a drug addict and all...and was trying a little too hard to make himself go and bam...dead. I can't believe I lived 50 whole years without knowing this.

Well, I never...

Last night at the Occidental Farmers Market I was visiting with my friend HarveyLee. For those of you unfamiliar with this blog and it's characters, HarveyLee (HL) is my 93 year old friend that lives in Waco, Texas half the year and here the other half. But she was born and raised in Texas and most definitely has that kind of sensibility, shall we say! Last night she was deep in the heart of story telling when she suddenly stopped and said in a very drawn out, southern kind of way: "mercy." I knew by the way she was saying it that I needed to look exactly where she was looking which I did...and saw a SERIOUS case of plumbers butt. (in case you don't know what plumbers butt is...well, it's when someone bends over at the waist and you can see their butt crack) In this, case you could see a good portion of said crack. We both were bent over double laughing and when that stopped I looked over at HL and she was just shakin' her head in disbelief.

Oh, Dad!!

My brother just relayed this story about our dad and it is SOOOOOOO quintessentially dad.
He had accidentally dropped one of his nightly pills on the floor and couldn't find it. Instead of asking for help he took another of the same pills out of the container and intentionally dropped it on the floor thinking that would lead him to the first pill! Well, it ends up that he did find one of the pills on the floor but couldn't find the second...until somehow he noticed that it was squished on the bottom of his shoe!!!

All These Years

The other day I was giving my 93 year old friend a mani. While I was trimming her fingernails she said: "I've had these nails for 93 years." While I know that she hasn't had those EXACT nails the whole time it struck me in that moment how our body parts are as old as we are. Seems obvious, I know. But when you really stop and think about the fact that she has a 93 year old liver or ankle or vertebrae or heart...it's mind blowing. I mean really...a 93 year old liver. Are you picking up what I'm puttin' down?!!!

End of Life Reflections

My hospice client and I had plenty of conversations about God, dying, death and possible afterlife. We'd regularly wandered through that territory together and even had some pretty good laughs during this exploration. Recently, as she was ready to slip out of consciousness but still barely able to speak. I asked her if she was ready? She whispered that she was and that she'd been talking with God...and that she realized "you can"t boss God around!" She followed this up with a smile and I, too, had to laugh. What a hilarious end of life conclusion.

Two Funny Fellas

My 89 year old dad has a lifelong history of getting names wrong...even those of his wife (at the altar...oops) and of his children. Nowadays when I call, I begin the conversation by identifying myself to save him the exercise of having to scan his brain for the correct name!!! In addition to getting names wrong, he is also really gifted at saying a word that is very close to the one he actually means but is just enough off to be funny. In our conversation yesterday he kept referring to that outdated address book called a rolodex as a rolex and I just couldn't bring myself to tell him any different...or that I wasn't sure I knew anyone but him that still used one!!!
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My 4.5 year old buddy was over visiting yesterday. I was watering the garden and Don came over with a pair of scissors and begin "cutting" the water. As if there were no question whatsoever he said: "look, the scissors are cutting the water."