This is dedicated to my sister Betti Schulz, who lost her life to AML on September 22, 2006.http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Betti was a woman who was strong, incredibly intelligent and a woman who chose to live a simple life with few materialistic items....she was my older sister....I LOVE her and there has not been a day in the past 10 months that I have not cried over having lost her.
Here is an email that was sent after her first 8 WEEK stint in the hospital. :
hii hows it goiing? i got home last wed but not much energy to try this out. i do things in real little stints. it is 3 am and i am up for a couple more painkillers and to feed a bottle kid. we had extremely cold this past few days and sure enough triplets born. i cant do much but feel handy feeding the kid. so im also making cheese spaghetti for a meal today. we have been eating a variety of tv dinners. so my first attempt at home cooked. wow!!
well i will write when i can ok? im home yet for nearly two weeks. thank goodness. then i dont know what.
all is quiet here and im off to bed. hey i really like that place where mc is being boarded. real neat.
take care!
love, bets
I could make a political statement in this diary (as this IS a democratic blog), but I will not...except to say she did NOT have health insurance, she could never afford it...I of course question the care she was given throughout the 7 months that she fought to live...but that is now in the past, she is gone, NOTHING will bring her back.
About 5 or so months ago, I sustained a serious leg injury while working out...for some odd reason after like a month I began to run...I have NEVER run...I ran my first 5k in the beginning of May. A few weeks later I ran my second, finish 9th in my age group out of apparently 55 women.
Next Sunday (July 22nd) I will run the NAKED JUICE 5K in SAN DIEGO http://www.sandiegobloodbank.org...I'm still running on an injured leg, but my times have gone from 12 minute miles to about 8 minutes miles on a GOOD day.
This run is for BETTI, whose life depended on blood products for 7 months...I believe my way of grieving is to run...sort of like Forest Gump did.
It is that simple.
My request is that EVERYONE that reads this diary make a commitment to either make a donation on the personal website the SD Blood Bank gives to us (mine is here: http://sandiegobloodbank.org/... )...or go and donate blood, or volunteer to help someone less fortuante...please if we all take a moment to make a difference, America will THRIVE again.
Trust me, I know better then anyone that most of us are struggling to keep a roof over our heads...but BLOOD IS LIFE SUSTAINING, trust me on this one.
I know there are numerous Kossacks who are struggling with cancer or other diseases/illnesses (or are a friend/family member of someone who is)...my healing thoughts go out to you. Please sound off here...the inspiration will assist me in the run...I do it not only for BETTI, but for ALL of you who are my inspiration.
There is not a day that goes by now, that I am not thankful for my health and the ability that blogs such as DailyKos have to reach so many.
Accept yourself as you are. Otherwise you will never see opportunity. You will not feel free to move toward it; you will feel you are not deserving.
Maxwell Maltz
Thank you for reading this, please feel free to recommend and pass it along so I can possibly make my fundraising goal.
Peace.
Barbara