People

It is difficult for me to not get a little sad these days. I am spending most of my time either at a care facility with people who are nearing the end of their lives, some of whom have "already left the planet"... or in the ICU at the hospital listening to people fighting for their lives. Dad is progressing nicely so that is good. Mom isn't. I struggle with how to handle that. She is such a loving, kindhearted person. I guess if I didn't love her, I wouldn't be so frustrated.

I have been meeting some really interesting people here in Sun City. Dad's surgeon was a bit of a surprise. When we went for the introductory appointment, a medium height, chunky woman dressed in stretchy pants, a wild tee shirt, funky green and fuschia shoes, a heavy charm bracelet, with spiky orange hair came into the room and I tried not to over-react. She was really pleasant and everyone we have ever spoken to that is at all involved in the medical profession respects her highly. Dad was quite pleased and confident about putting his life in her hands. I must say, if I ever saw her in a mall or restaurant, I would never have pegged her as a skilled thoracic surgeon. She even has beautiful hand writing!

The anesthesologist who put Dad to sleep for the surgery impressed us both from the start. He is a Mexican who moved to the United States when he was 5, grew up here and became a naturalized citizen. He takes in foster children and is also an excellent health care professional. He is also very outspoken about Arizona's controversial new illegal immigrant policy. He is annoyed at people who don't live here and haven't gone through what he has gone through to get to where he is. In his words, "I'm very much in favor of LEGAL immigrants. I paid my dues and think everybody should." He made several jokes about his ethnicity and was wonderful to meet.

An LDS couple put on a little music show at the care facility where Mom is. The wife is one of those few people who have been given the gift of playing piano by ear. She can play anything and plays very well. She doesn't play much classical and the popular music she plays is in the style of Liberace or Ferrante and Teicher(??). Her husband sings kind of like Don Ho I guess. But they are amazing for senior citizens and put on an excellent program. She has played for Disneyland and Opryland. They drop famous people's names as acquaintences and have 5 children and 14 grandchildren and 3 1/2 great-grandchildren.

I look forward to a time and opportunity to socialize without fear of being misunderstood, misled, or mistreated. There are lots of really pleasant people around with fascinating stories to tell but sometimes fear gets in the way of fellowship. We need somebody in charge to run things perfectly and there needs to be a weeding out of people who don't want to live with rules. Some day..............