It was the beginning of June and I was gathering textiles to use for embellishing some lovely little books. Each book is a different, bold color and I was searching through my stash for the right pieces of fabric to complement each colorway ... lavender, turquoise, green, red, and sunflower yellow. I also had a few bracelets and necklaces in the works, with beautiful beads and gorgeous hand-dyed silk carrier rods. I’m particularly fond of the turquoise colorway that I was putting together for a necklace.
GROUPING COLORS ... I DO LOVE COLOR ...
I really enjoy this part of the process ... the gathering, and the color-love. I have so much to choose from ... necktie scraps from a huge bag which Doug brought home from Robert Talbott in California, strips of sari silk and recycled silk yarns from Frabjous Fibers, pieces of vintage clothing from many sources, vintage linens, ribbons, laces, and trims galore.
The general feeling around here is that I could hole away in my studio and it would be a at least a year before my various raw materials and supplies might start to thin out. But these projects have been hanging in limbo. I have not touched them.
The weather was fine and so was I (or so I thought). My two new knees had liberated me from my existence as a housebound hermit. "It’s like I have my life back," I’d say when asked how those knees were working out. I looked better than I had in years. How ironic.
WHEELS OF MY OWN AGAIN ...
After several years of sharing a car with Doug, I had wheels of my own again. As one friend said recently, "You were just getting back to being Morna and now this happens."
It was the beginning of June and my world abruptly tilted on its axis ... I was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Stage Three. Inoperable. Lung cancer.
I think you can imagine the expletives that went tap-dancing through my mind.
Oddly, my initial shock was very quickly followed by a prolonged state of euphoria. For many weeks, I was extraordinarily happy. Life was good, the world was a beautiful place, and I felt energized by what I can only describe as good vibrations. More about that some other time.
HERE I AM ON JULY 16 ... ABOUT FIVE WEEKS POST-DIAGNOSIS ... I WAS HAPPY ... GO FIGURE ...
Now it is mid-September. I’ve had radiation therapy five days per week for six weeks, plus chemotherapy one day per week during those same six weeks. Doug has driven me to Memorial Sloan Kettering more times than he wants to think about, and Adeline has taken me on the days when I get chemo, bless her heart. Now I am on a break - to recover and get strong for the next rounds of chemo, which will be the really horrid, lose all your hair ones. I can only hope it brings me some meaningful survival time.
If this has all been TMI (Too Much Information), I apologize.
I just thought it was time to share with you, what it is that’s been happening here.
