What's Behind the Drawer That Won't Close (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Catsynth, Keith, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.   

This month, Sean Jeating is providing the prompts which will appear on River's blog.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.children  

2.couple  

3.emancipated  

4.fun  

5.idyll

and/or:

1.happen  

2.just  

3.moment  

4.peaceful  

5.things

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

Charlotte's colour of the month is Smoky Rose

Back in the late 1950’s when women weren’t quite so EMANCIPATED as today, and most young ladies were steered into the jobs of nurse/secretary/teacher, a young lady in Jackson, Mississippi decided nurse was the job for her.  She graduated from high school and her parents put her on the train to New Orleans, Louisiana (NOLA) where she had arranged to enroll in the three year program at the Charity Hospital School of Nursing to earn her RN.

While in school, she caught the eye of a young gentleman in medical school, and she actually tried to avoid him, jumping on an elevator to get away but he was quick and followed her, securing a date.

(Please note this young man managed to date every young lady in the School of Nursing in the class year ahead of her, her class year, and the class year behind her.  Yes, every one.  He had charm to spare.)

One date led to another and eventually, after a few twists and turns (he was, after all, still dating around), it led to them becoming a COUPLE, marriage bells, and three CHILDREN.

Their lives had the usual ups and downs, times of FUN and times of stress, no IDYLL, no looking at their lives through Smoky Rose colored glasses, but a normal doctor and his wife and family life.

Of course, THINGS don’t just go on “as usual” forever, there really is no “as usual” for the most part.  About 4 1/2 years ago, she got up in the night to use the restroom and JUST as she was standing up, she experienced a moment of light-headedness and fell.

It did HAPPEN in such a way that she did not break any bones (almost a miracle for a woman in her 80’s), but she got whiplash.

Her life has been on a downhill trajectory ever since.

Of course, many of you have by now guessed i am speaking of Grandma (my mother, called Grandma on my blog from the beginning because the kids were young when i started this and i was the mother, she was the grandmother, now i’m the grandmother and she’s the great-grandmother).

The past few days she has started to slide quickly.  We began hospice at home less than a month ago, and now she has not had anything by mouth except liquid medicines since this past Saturday, her right side is totally stiff and she is often unresponsive.

She’s on liquid pain medicine every two hours and an anti-anxiety medicine every 4 hours, and if she does respond to a question (which is becoming less often), she says she’s not hurting, so we hope the meds are keeping her comfortable.

All of my children who live in the state are planning to come see her this weekend, and I am starting to wonder if she will make it that long.

I’m on standby to go down there any time, all my clients have been told they may not have me this week depending on what happens, and of course all of them are amazing people who have said they totally understand.

We are hoping and praying when the MOMENT comes her passing will be PEACEFUL.

Please think good thoughts or prayers for us and if you suddenly don’t see me blogging or visiting, know i’m thinking of you, but just busy with the round of life which comes to us all.

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Today is National Pet Obesity Awareness Day, because about half of pets in the US are overweight or obese. 

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.        

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Today is:

Be Bald and Be Free Day -- Wellcat Holidays wants everyone who is "shiny" to be proud of it! 

Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day -- at your own risk! sponsored by Susan E. Schwartz of "Teddies Are The Answer"

Chisinau Day -- Chisinau, Moldova

Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence -- US (students around the nation are asked to sign the Pledge Against Gun Violence)       

Dessert Day -- another one?

Doburoku Matsuri -- Shirakawago, Japan (unrefined sake festival and harvest festival; through the 19th)

Emergency Nurses Day

Festival for the Penates -- Ancient Roman Calendar (gods of the storeroom)

Flag Day/Jour de la Proclamation de la Premiere Republique -- Madagascar (flag adopted this day in 1958)

Liberation Day -- Yemen

Mega Kenka Matsuri -- Hyogo, Japan (Roughhouse Festival, wrestling for a blessing; through tomorrow)

Mother's Day -- Belarus

Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Day -- Tanzania (climax of the Uhuru Torch Race)

National Chocolate Covered Insect Day -- i'll pass, sorry

National Dessert Day

National Education Day -- Poland

National Fossil Day -- US (National Park Service information) 

National Frump Day -- National FRUMPS of America (to honor the frugal, responsible, unpretentious, and mature people everywhere)

National Stop Bullying Day -- use #NationalStopBullyingDay to post on social media (begun in 2009 by eighteen 6th grade students at St. Stanislaus Kostka School, now a nationwide movement)

National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day -- US (sponsored by Kiwi Magazine, encouraging parents to go to school and have lunch with the children, learning what goes into a healthy lunch) 

Republic Day / October Revolution Day -- Yemen

SAVE Today -- US (Stop America's Violence Everywhere, a day created in 1995 by the American Medical Association Alliance)

St. Callistus' Day (Patron of cemetary workers)

St. Donatian of Rheims's Day (Patron of Bruges, Belgium; Rheims, France; West Flanders, Belgium)

St. Petca Paraskeva's Day (Patron of embroiderers, needle workers, spinners, weavers, and all who do needlework of any kind)related observance

     Petkouden -- Bulgaria

Svetitskovloba/Living Pillar Cathedral -- Georgia (celebration of the first Christian church in Georgia)

Tavistock Goose Fair -- Tavistock, Devon, UK (known locally as the Goosey, dating back to 12th-century Michaelmas fairs, this original livestock fair is now mostly a fun festival)

Vinternatsblot, a/k/a Haustblót -- Asatru (to bid Winter welcome; at the approximate date of the start of winter in the Old European Calendar of the Norse

World Standards Day -- International

Birthdays Today:

Usher, 1978

Natalie Maines, 1974

Greg Evigan, 1958

Harry Anderson, 1952

Sir Cliff Richard, 1940

Ralph Lauren, 1939

John Dean, 1938

Gary Graffman, 1928

Roger Moore, 1927

Charles Everett Koop, 1916

John Wooden, 1910

Eugene FRodor, 1905

e.e. cummings, 1894

Lillian Gish, 1893

Dwight Eisenhower, 1890

Eamon De Valera, 1882

Francis Lightfoot Lee, 1734

William Penn, 1644

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Rescue from Gilligan's Island(TV film), 1978 (the first TV film follow up of a TV series)

Winnie-The-Pooh(publication date), 1926

Today in History:

William the Conqueror wins England in the Battle of Hastings, 1066

Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence, 1322

Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England, 1586

Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), 1656

Rabbi Judah Hasid & Chayim Molocho arrive in Jerusalem, 1700

Henry Blair receives a patent for a corn planter, becoming the first black to obtain a US patent, 1834

The 15th and the last military Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan, returning his power to the Emperor of Japan and thence to the re-established civil government of Japan, 1867

George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film, 1884

Theodore Roosevelt is shot while campaigning in Milwaukee on the "Bull Moose" ticket, 1912

The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published, 1926

Ethel Merman makes her Broadway debut in "Girl Crazy", 1930

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Untouchable caste leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers, 1956

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian Monarch to open up an annual session of the Canadian Parliament, presenting her Speech from the Throne in Ottawa, Canada, 1957

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when a U.S. Air Force U2 Reconnaissance pilot takes pictures of Soviet missiles being installed in Cuba, 1962

The city of Montreal, Quebec, begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid-transit system, 1966

The first live telecast from any manned spacecraft, the Apollo 7, 1968

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Foreign Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords , 1994 

Indonesian rights groups applaud the end of a Suharto-era law that bans books deemed 'offensive' or a 'threat to public order,' 2010

A colony of stromatolites is discovered at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, 2011

The Spanish government says it will impose direct rule on Catalonia after the region voted for independence in a referendum, 2017

The Booker Prize is awarded jointly to Margaret Atwood for "The Testaments" and

Bernardine Evaristo for "Girl, Woman, Other:" Evaristo is the first black woman to win, 2019

A copy of William Shakespeare's First Folio sells for a record $9.98 million at auction in New York, 2020

The journal "Nature" publishes details of the world's first room-temperature superconductor, created at the University of Rochester, NY, 2020

An annular solar eclipse, complete with the "ring of fire," dazzles viewers across parts of the US, Mexico, and Central and South America, 2023

In a referendum, Australia votes against altering its constitution to give indigenous communities more rights, 2023

NASA's Europa Clipper launches on a mission to investigate the subsurface ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa, 2024