My friend who was on hospice care in her home passed away today around noon. I was scheduled to sit with her for the evening shift today, from 4:30 to 9 pm. I ended up sitting with her body from about 12:15 until 3:30 when the hospice person finished the paperwork and called the funeral home to pick her up.

Shirley was in her 80s, widowed, no children, and no family in the area, so her friends and neighbors have been checking on her every day since she began hospice care, and sitting with her round the clock since she became bedridden a couple of weeks ago. She passed peacefully after a somewhat restless night. She looked like she was finally at peace. I don't think she expected death to take so long and be so frustrating, but when I told her one day that I was sorry she was suffering, she said, "It's not so bad." She was truly a Tough Old Broad and I say that with much love and respect. The women of my family all aspire to be Tough Old Broads.

Shirley had a sweet little dog, the same breed and around the same age as Boo. Oreo and Boo have been butt sniffing buddies for many years - even before I met Shirley. She asked a friend of hers to take Oreo when she died and he agreed, but the reality is that he and his wife are both retired and have been looking forward to spending some time traveling while they can. They planned to get another dog after they're too old to travel the world and were not ready to take in Oreo, although they love him. Also, their young grandchildren are kind of scared of him because he nipped at them when they were playing a bit roughly with them last time they were in town. So, I ended up inheriting Oreo. Boo is okay with Oreo being in the house right now; I'm not sure how he'll react when he realizes Oreo is staying. He's a jealous dog, but he's used to sharing me with my daughter's dog Jack, so I think he'll be okay with having a new brother. I'm more worried about how Jack will react.

It's been a wild year. I really hope Shirley's death is the last bad thing that happens this year, but I'm not holding my breath. Maybe there will be more to come, and perhaps 2019 will end up being better to me. Meanwhile, I'll take sweet little Oreo as one of the rare good things in a difficult year.

Hi, friends - it's been a long time! I know I've been neglecting my family, friends and social media lately, but there have been reasons. Valid reasons, even!

LIFE: So, first of all, yes I am still alive. I wondered at times how much longer I would be among the living. I got my affairs in order the best I could. There's still some paperwork that needs to be done, but I'm going to start working on that this week. My will and powers of attorney were updated and a medical directive signed, witnessed and notarized. Just in case.

IN BETWEEN: I've undergone many rounds of blood work, an ultrasound and an MRI. Luckily, the MRI finally pinpointed why I haven't felt well for the past three years and why I was completely out of energy the past few months before I had to do a liver biopsy. I was literally at the point that I couldn't get through a day without putting my pajamas on and going back to bed multiple times. I couldn't eat and most of the time had no appetite anyway. I dropped 40 or 50 pounds and was living on Jello, applesauce and bananas. My skin was a sickly, pasty hue and I had huge dark circles not just under my eyes, but all the way around them. I ran a constant low-grade fever that often spiked and gave me violent chills and, on one occasion, spectacular vomiting. This went on for months. The MRI showed a slight swelling of the common bile duct. I FINALLY got in to see a gastroenterologist and was immediately sent to the hospital. I spent three days in the hospital last week, with a surgical procedure on the second day. My bile duct was packed with gallstones, some of them the size of marbles. My gallbladder was removed in 2015, so these stones had most likely been there for the past three years as I got sicker and sicker. I should have gone to the emergency room a month or two ago like my daughter kept urging and my sister kept plotting, but I'm a stubborn, tough old broad. The GI doctor even said I'm tough to have suffered those huge stones for so long. Living with pain is just part of being a woman. We learn with our first menstrual cramps to ignore the pain and keep on doing what needs to be done because the world doesn't care about all of our "little aches and pains." That's why so many women die of heart attacks.

Anyway, I'm home from the hospital and feeling better than I have in a long time. I'm still tired and need to rest often, but my energy is slowly returning as my liver enzymes slowly return to normal. It'll take a little while to get back to where I can do what needs to be done around the house, run all the errands, do all the shopping, walk the dog and get back to geocaching. I was on the verge of hanging up my car keys, but I'm back to driving now. I can't tell you how much I love and appreciate my daughter and two sisters for taking care of me the past month.

DEATH: I have an elderly friend who lives a few blocks from me. I met her in 2011, on the day of her husband's funeral. I wrote about that meeting here: LINK  She is dying and she's pretty angry that it's taking so long. I've been going over nearly every day and visiting her, sometimes taking her to the bank or the bakery or the vet or just for a drive, and when she's having a really bad day and is completely out of patience I take her dog home with me for a couple of hours so she can rest without him jumping up to cuddle with her and inadvertently hurting her. She got a neighbor to take her to the hospital to visit me last week, and she'd even gone out to her beautiful gardens and cut a bouquet of flowers for me. I was so touched. She had a crisis the other day and is now in a hospital bed in her living room, on oxygen full time, and being pumped full of morphine. It won't be too much longer before she finally gets her wish and dies. She asked me once why God wasn't "doing His job" and letting her die. I told her it's because God was doing His job and blessing me through her. Being able to sit with her and talk was like talking to my mother before Alzheimer's (except my mother didn't have quite the magnificent range of cussing as my friend).

So there you have what I'm willing to share of the past nine months or so in a nutshell. I've been sick and am finally getting better. My friend has been dying (and "taking too damn long") and she's finally getting worse. The circle of life continues.