Author: AMF-Admin

Chapter 31: Mom’s Last Night With Us September 28, 2025 Our household is a little uneasy this evening.  Tomorrow will be the one-month anniversary of mom’s death and tonight is the last night that mom’s remains are with us in the house.  Even though the “Month’s Mind” Mass is a broader Catholic thing, I only…

Chapter 30: Cracks Start to Show April 12, 2024 Today wraps up one of the worst weeks of my life.  But as much as I can do the poor me dance, I actually can’t bear to think of how much worse it clearly is for mom. Be careful what you wish for, they say.  No…

Chapter 29: The First Follow-up April 2, 2024 Mom had her one-year follow-up appointment at the Glenrose today.  It seems hard to believe that a whole year has already passed since the initial visits with my family doctor, the testing, and her first PET brain scan. The doctor was really nice – but it was…

Chapter 28: Goodbye to Group September 23, 2025 When mom died, dad was adamant that our notifications included a specific sentence asking people NOT to send flowers and I totally supported him on that.  Why do people send death flowers, anyway?  They’re never colourful – always muted and depressing to look at.  I’ve honestly never…

Chapter 27: Becoming my Parent’s Parent April 1, 2024 Something really weird has started to happen over the last little while.  I’m going through a transition that I don’t care for at all.  Somehow, I am becoming my own mom’s mom.  It is every bit as weird, awkward, and uncomfortable as it sounds.  And I…

Chapter 26: Vacation Time! March 26, 2024 Our family members are big fans of the all-inclusive vacation concept…except for the fact that it seems to accelerate time.  How is it that seven days on the beach moves at warp speed while 7 days in -30 weather goes so slowly, you actually feel like you’re moving…

Chapter 25: First of the Firsts September 21, 2025 Today is…just the first of many difficult days that we are going to have to learn how to manage through.   It’s my sister’s birthday.  And for the first time since she moved away over 20 years ago, mom won’t be the first person to call her…

Chapter 24: Project Keep Busy March 3, 2024 Today is dad’s 75th birthday!  Originally, I had planned a surprise dinner with two of his good friends, but they ended up getting sick, so it was just us six as usual.  Thought that counts, I hope?  Anyway, after the dinner and cake festivities, I had a…

Chapter 23: Sad Playlist September 20, 2025 I had some downtime today – very unusual for a Saturday when I am generally engaged in my role as professional chauffeur to my kids who need to get to activities. At any rate, I had an idea – not sure if it is weird, morbid, or totally…

Chapter 22: Proactive Memory Preservation February 2024 Today is a Sunday and so mom and dad are here as usual for dinner.  Normally they arrive while we’re still trying to prepare everything and since Monday is a school day, it’s always a rush to get everyone fed on time so we can continue without interruption…