Happy Anniversary

My one year anniversary of my lung cancer diagnosis was Saturday, September 18.  Then it was marked by  the marriage of the daughter of good friends of mine.  This year, September 18, was  the funeral of a long time member of my small church.  He led a quiet life but was remembered with fondness, something that is a worthy aspiration.  I am grateful for the past year for many, many reasons, chief among them the love of my children, my family and my friends.  I am so very fortunate.

I even had a surprise gift to mark the occasion.  This came from friends of mine with whom I share a special bond--Dorothy Dunnett.  I well remember first reading her books back in the 1990's and being completely captivated by her writing, which injected fictional characters into a perfectly realized vision of Scotland during the time of Mary Queen of Scots (The Lymond Chronicles) and then in a later series, the rise of the merchant class during the late middle ages (Niccolo) .  I recommended both of Dunnett's series  to Margaret, a college friend living in Corvallis, and she returned the favor a few years later by introducing me to the yahoo group, marzipan, which discusses the Dunnett oeuvre.  I followed as a lurker for a while, intimidated by the level of analysis demonstrated by  many of the members.

A number of other fora spun off from marzipan, and one them, the open forum, offered a chance to discuss modern day events with folks from around the world. I was not quite so shy in expressing my opinion there.  Sharp differences of opinion, particularly around the Iraq War and the Middle East, made for exciting conversation, and I made fast friends in the marzipan open forum. 

A year and a half ago, I was able to host a dinner for the moderator of the fora, Simon, who hails from England, when he and his significant other were on a tour of the west coast.  It was a wonderful evening of wide ranging discussion, made all the more serendipitous when I discovered, that Amy, who drove up from Portland for the evening, was a Macalester graduate! 

At any rate, my dear Dunnett friends, led by Olive, sent me not one, but two boxes of Leonidas pralines from Belgium (my absolute favorite) and a lovely necklace and earring set (which I promise to model when my daughter can wield the camera next).  Thank you all for a true day brightener, when I needed it most!

And for those who have not read the comments to my previous post, Max came home from surgery on September 18.  He is doing very well, albeit sleepy because of the pain killers I administer to him 3 times a day.  But he is no longer exerting himself  just to breathe normally, and that is such a relief.  I am trying to figure out what he will eat, and so far he has enjoyed ground turkey and rice meatballs and buttered toast (butter being his very favorite food because he can't have chocolate pralines from Leonidas).  Thank you for all your kind prayers and wishes for him. 

I wish that I had something more significant to say as a marker for this milestone, but I don't.  It's been a very intense year and I look forward to what comes next.